Twist of Fate
by ADdude
Summary: Something is happening to the life of a certain Level 0 and for some reason he starts to have luck with the women. Obviously something is terribly wrong especially with disasters after disasters start to occur around him both of the magic and science variety. Some force is messing with Touma's life. Love triangles or Dodecahedron. Secrets will be revealed. Touma X Harem
1. Chapter 1:Start of Something

**Twist of Fate**

**Disclaimer: I do not own a certain magical index, it's characters or it's elements.**

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Chapter 1: Start of Something

Academy City is a city of science with technology years a head of the rest of the world. With 2.3 million residents and most students it has a lot of schools. And most of those living in the city as what is known as espers with powers from just about anything from controlling electricity to mind control. There is one 16 year old high school student who has an ability to negate such powers, his power is not an esper ability nor is it magic. His power is known as imagine breaker.

Because of this ability that his right hand possesses Touma Kamijou is rather misfortunate. For an example what misfortunate he attracts one need to look back only a few days ago. Touma got involved with a cabal of magicians that had snuck into the city and attempted a spell that would have destroyed the city sacrificing it so the cabal could gain great power. Magicians from London arrived to stop it since even if the spell failed it was likely to cause many disasters and cost lives. Touma got involved and ended up fighting along side the magicians to defeat the cabal. Though he negated the spell the fight still resulted in him having many bones broken along with him getting several wounds.

So after Touma spent a few days in the hospital under the care of a frog faced doctor he was let out with just a few bandages.

He was making his way home to his dorm and the freeloader that was waiting for him. He was getting thirsty and decided to stop by nearby vending machine for a drink before he got home.

"Kinda hot today." Touma mumbled to himself. He walked towards the machine.

"Get out of the way!" A voice yelled out.

Touma turned back to see a girl with short dark hair and glasses, she was wearing a blue uniform and a green arm band. Before Touma could react she tackled him to nearby grass pushing him away from the vending machine. Before he realized what was happening the vending machine exploded sending parts flying everywhere.

Maybe it was because he was weak from his hospital stay and the pain killers still in his system slowed him down but it took Touma a moment to asset the situation. The first thing he noticed was that the girl was on top of him with her body resting on his.

A young man a little older than himself with dark messy hair who wore a dark leather jacket walked towards them

"That was pretty good." He said sounding over confident. "You managed to beat most of my guys and you don't see to have any offensive abilities. You even managed to dodge my attack and save him."

The girl looked up at him angrily, "I'm a Judgement officer, it's my duty to protect people and stop people like you who misuse their powers to commit crimes."

"Well there doesn't seem to be any point in arguing this." He was a safe distance from them when he outstretched his arm and a ball of fire formed in his palm. "I won't hold back and make this quick." With that a massive stream fire shot out his right hand towards them.

The Judgement officer knew she couldn't evade it or stop it so in the end she pushed down and pressed her body on Touma in an attempt to shield him from the flames. She didn't expect to come off unscathed and she wasn't sure she'd survive she just wanted to protect this stranger from as much pain as she could. She closed her eyes and braced for it.

Then she found herself being flipped over and she opened her eyes to see Touma had switched places with her.

"What-?" She didn't managed to finish.

Touma stretched out his right hand at the oncoming flames and the second they came into contact they shatter into nothingness with a crack.

"It's not even as strong as what Stiyl can do." Touma got up and stretched his other hand to help the stunned Judgement officer up.

The criminal stared in fear and confusion, a common sight when someone first used their powers against the imagine breaker. Their powers had raised them to a new level and just like that they were brought down to reality, they were reminded that they were just human.

"What did you do?" He yelled at Touma. "What kind of power is that?! How can you just snuff out my flames?! What level are you?"

"Me?" Touma said . "I'm just a Level Zero."

"Don't lie!" Frustrated he threw a fire ball right at him.

Touma reacted by basically slapping the ball away with his right hand to have it shatter into nothingness. The attacker refused to give in and fired fire ball after fire ball.

"Stop lying! You can't be a Level Zero." He shouted as each attack was shattered by Touma as he walked closer and closer to him and panic set in. "Me and my guys are going to take over! Do whatever we want! I can't just be beaten by a Level Zero." Finally he fired a large stream of fire at him giving him all he had.

The flames blocked his view but he could still hear Touma's voice, "You think you can do whatever you want? You think can hurt whoever you want? Take whatever you want?! Then I'm going to shatter that messed up illusion!"

With another loud shatter the flames vanished and a figure rushed towards him. Before he could react he was punched in the face by the Judgement officer that he tried to burn alive and with one punch she knocked him out.

Touma was for once the stunned one. "I'm usually the one who does that."

"What?" She asked him.

"Never mind."

Just then some Anti-Skill member arrived dressed in their body armor. Quickly a few of them grabbed the unconscious esper but one of them turned to the two teenagers. She is a tall woman with a long black ponytail and she looked right at Touma.

"It's you again." She said mildly annoyed. "You got into trouble again."

"Sorry Yomikawa sensei." Touma said mournful.

"You two know each other?" The Judgement officer asked.

"She is a gym teacher at my school." Touma told her.

"Yes, and he has a habit of getting into these messes. You still haven't told me what happened in the Underground Mall or that explosion that happened a few days ago."

Touma was visibly nervous since even if he explained what really happened no one would believe him.

"I'm sorry but I have to ask him some questions about this incident." The girl spoke up.

"Right." Yomikawa relented figuring she could get to Touma at school left to handle the other espers they had detained.

"Thanks." Touma thanked the girl.

"No, I should thank you. I don't know how you did it but you managed to stop the flames. How did you do that anyway?"

"Actually-" Touma's phone rang and he picked up. "Hello." The phone blared in his ear. "Sorry I'll be home soon. Sorry to make you wait!" He hung up the phone. "Such Misfortune." He bemoaned. "I have to go someone is waiting for me."

"Oh, it's not problem but-" She paused for a moment. "I didn't get your name."

"It's Touma Kamijou."

"It's nice to meet you." She smiled at him. "I'm Mii Konori."

"It's nice to meet you too, I should get going." Touma turned to leave.

"Your phone." Konori spoke up. "Can we trade numbers?"

"Numbers?"

"In case I have to call you, we have to file a lot of reports for something like this. Besides if you do get into a lot of trouble like this it might be good to have each other's numbers."

"Oh, okay." They took out their phone and quickly traded numbers.

They didn't say much as Touma hurried home before more trouble found him or worse the hungry nun at his dorm got angry. Konori held her phone in her hand as she watched him leave, a small blush on her cheeks when she realized she was feeling something she hadn't felt in a long time.

Touma made it to his dorm soon enough to find an angry nun.

"I'm sorry I'm late." Touma told Index his free loader.

"Yes, someone was certainly grumpy." Maika was a maid-in-training, Index's friend and the younger sister to Tsuchimikado. Since her brother was gone she was spending more time with Index and kept her company. The young maid was in the kitchen cooking something when Touma arrived. "I am happy to cook for her when your in the hospital since my brother is who knows where." Maika didn't knew her brothers was a spy and at the moment faked his own death, she thought he was on a trip for school and would be gone for a while "Still she refuses to settle while I cook."

"I'm hungry." Index complained at she played with her pet cat.

Touma sighed knowing he'd get bitten if he didn't do something.

"Did you get a hair cut? Maika asked.

"What?" He asked her confused.

"One of your spikes is cut." Maika pointed at him.

Touma ran his hand through his hair to find that one of his spikes seemed to be cut. "Maybe when that vending machine exploded."

"Exploding vending machine?!" Index turned to him. "Have you been getting into trouble again!?"

"No, I swear I haven't." That was when someone knocked on the door. "I'll get it."

The door was quickly opened it to find a blonde haired girl in a Tokiwadai Uniform.

"Hello Kamijou." She greeted with a cheerful tone and a cute smile.

Touma blinked once, " Misaki Shokuhou?"

"That's right I'm glad you remembered me."

"Shokuhou?" Touma was confused as to why she was there.

"Please call me Misaki.""

"Oh, alright." Touma didn't know how to react. They hadn't spoken much, as far as he could recall they both met at Daihasei and then they spoke through a girl she took over to help him.

"Can we speak in private for a moment?" Misaki asked noticing the looks she got from Maika who seemed to recognized her.

They stepped outside and closed the door behind them "Wait, how did you know where I live?"

"Oh, I've known for sometime." Misaki didn't look at him in the eyes and gave a small sad sigh. "It's a long story."

"Okay, did you want to tell me something?" Touma was still uncertain about a number of things and hoped he would get some answers.

"Yes," She turned to him. "I wanted to say thank you."

"For what?"

"For saving me. You saved me in ways I can't even explain right now. I am truly grateful for what you've done for me."

Touma was confused as to what she was talking about but felt it would be too rude to interrupt her now.

"I know things aren't like they were but maybe that's for the better in some ways and I suppose worse in others." She shook her head as to clear off the thought from her mind. "I saw you in your strange little chase that you were sent on but I only saw you through another's eyes and then you ran off so quickly. I tried to find you afterward but I didn't reach you. I haven't managed to get you off my mind lately and I think it was since I saw you again. I wanted to see you again with my own eyes and to say thank you in person." She looked at him and she smiled, a real sincere smile that had a warmth that her cutesy smile lacked and Touma couldn't help but smile back. "And I wanted to give you a small token." She took from the bag that she always carried around a small box with a simple gold ribbon wrapped around it. "Mind you I'm not a great baker but I did make you some cookies."

"You made me cookies?" Touma was surprised since rarely was he this lucky.

"Don't worry I tasted a few and they taste fine and I don't think they'll make you sick so don't worry about your misfortune for once. Enjoy." With a slight bow she handed him the small box. "Well, I have to go there are a few things to do before my curfew. Good bye."

With that she was off and before she stepped into the elevator she turned to him and smiled giving him her usual cute pose. After Touma stepped back inside and tried to eat the cookies but Maika scolded him and made him wait until he had eaten. Index ended eating most of them though.

Little did Touma or anyone else know that Misaki happened to run into someone right outside the dorms.

"Oh, if it isn't Seria Kumokawa?" Misaki greeted the dark haired girl she happened to run into. "What are you doing by Touma's apartment?"

"I could ask you the same thing." Seria retorted.

"I was simply giving him my thanks in the form of some home made cookies"

" I thought we'd agreed to stay away from him."

"It's just a small exception."

"That was the plan."

"The plan hasn't worked. He keep getting into trouble and unlike you I can't watch him at school."

"It's not pleasant for me either." Seria told her, her voice becoming agitated as she spoke. "I pass him down the halls and maybe speak a few words to him but he looks at me like a stranger and I do that everyday. You don't know how that's like."

"No I don't but it can't be worse then never seeing him and hearing whisper of what he's gotten into. Worrying but never seeing with your own eyes if he's truly alright."

The air around the two of them grew tenser and the two of them stared off at each other, they'd reached an impasse they could not easily overcome.

On the other side of the world in the magical land of England in the city of London in one of the many cathedrals in a throne like chair the Archbishop Laura Stuart sat. She was looking through sheets of paper though the room was too dark to properly see. Before her stood Itsuwa of the Amakusa church waiting after she had been called to meet her. Itsuwa wrung her hands together as she waited for the Archbishop to say something.

Laura finally spoke in fair to cutesy Japanese, "Itsuwa, you got back only a few days ago correct?"

"Yes." Itsuwa kept her answer short.

Laura gave her a cute smile as to calm her down. "When you came back from Academy City with the others you sent me a note and suggested something."

"Y-yes!" Itsuwa stuttered her answer out.

"I gave it some thought and talked to someone in Academy City in passing and to my surprise they agreed with you."

"Huh?"

"Your request has been granted." Laura held out some paper for her. "You will go to Academy City and serve as Touma Kamijou's bodyguard and aid."

"Really?" She looked up at the archbishop with wide eyes.

"As you put it Touma Kamijou does seem to get drawn into many magical incidents as are spy has confirmed. You will go protect Touma Kamijou as best you can from any magical danger that might arise and help him in his duties as the protector of the Index Librorum Prohitorum."

"Of course." Itsuwa nodded taking the papers that Laura handed to her.

"Now, even though Academy City has arranged for you to be in the city and to remain close to him they will provide no more aid. Since War World Three Touma has become a target and they feel for the safety of the city having a magician with him would greatly help keep down any collateral damage from these attacks. The last time you were in Academy City as his guard you did a good job so when you brought up that Touma needed some more protection I thought you should have this assignment. Now take those papers which include your instructions, all information you will need and your plane ticket for tomorrow so get packed up and say your goodbyes."

"Thank you. Thank you." Itsuwa bowed excitedly as she started to leave.

Laura smiled as she waved her goodbye. She dropped the smile once she was alone. "Hm? What are you really planning?" She figured that the true power behind Academy City had plans and she could buy that he wanted to limit property damage but she really felt that something else was happening.

Back in Academy City in the home of a rather small and pink haired teacher, Komoe. The small teacher was not alone in the in her apartment she was accompanied by two girls. Komoe was preparing some food on a hot plate on the table that they all sat next too.

"You see I wanted to talk to the both of you at the same time so I invited you to dinner so we could talk."

Both girls looked at each other before they looked back at the teacher.

"Awaki?" Komoe turned to the red haired girl. "You haven't been going to class lately.

"...things have come up." Awaki looked away as she answered. Awaki had been involved with many fights with the Darkside of Academy City so that kept her from actually going to her classes.

"Still I can't have you fail because you didn't show up to classes, you're the second student who has this problem but you have a better chance of overcoming it. So here is my plan: Himegami I want to show Awaki around school and help her adjust to it. "

The girl who'd up to this point remained silent pointed at herself, "Me?"

She had reasons to be a little surprised when it came down it both were rather different. She looked at Awaki and noted her red hair down up in two pig tails, Awaki had her school uniform coat over her shoulders wearing it as it were a cape. She had bandages wrapped around her torso and was showing more skin than Himegami could image herself showing off.

On the other hand Awaki on the other thought that Himegami was rather plain and soft spoken. Awaki mused that Himegami might look good dress as a shrine maiden.

"Himegami." Komoe continued. "You told me that you want to stand out more I'm sure if you spend sometime with Awaki you could learn to do just that."

They both quickly saw what Komoe planned by spending time with each other Himegami could learn to open up and Awaki would have someone to help her adjust to school life and thus would improve her chances staying in school.

They both had their doubts and were about to to speak them when they looked at Komoe with her bright eyes, it looked like she would cry if they said no so they nodded in agreement.

Happily Komoe continued, "Good,I want you ready for Monday when school starts. Also I've been told that a new transfer student is coming to class I'm sure Monday is going to be an interesting day."

With that Komoe took a bit of meat for herself.

In the 177th Branch of Judgement three girls were doing paper work and it was as exciting as it sounded.

The twin pigtailed teleporter Shirai Kuroko was groaning over the mountain of paper work she had to do. The girl with a hair band with flowers in her dark hair, Kazari Uiharu, was also doing paper work but was nowhere near as depressed by it.

That was when the door to the office opened and two girls came in carrying bags of take out. One had dark hair with a simple flower decorating her hair while the other had short tea colored hair.

Kuroko was suddenly more energetic and leapt at the one of the girls. "Onee-sama! Your mere presence rejuvenates me-" She was struck with lighting from the other girl's bangs before she got to finish. Kuroko was on the floor twitching.

"Don't start that." Mikoto Misaki the third most power esper in the city told her.

Ruiko Saten, a Level Zero, held out a bag of food, "We brought dinner."

"Great I'm starving." Uiharu happily took one of the bags.

"Why do you have to stay so late anyway?" Mikoto asked her roommate who was on the floor.

"Ah?" Kuroko moaned still coming off the shock. "We have to do a lot of of paper work. I'm going to have to stay here all night. Please let the Dorm Mother know."

Mikoto quickly agreed to the request not wanting her to get into trouble.

Saten asked them, "Why do you have to do so much paper work?"

"Property damage." Uiharu explained it. "Konori and Kuroko stopped a robbery done by a group of espers. The fight spread out into a nearby park and a lot of things were destroyed so we have to file all these papers and make sure everything is reported."

"Overall it was rather impressive." Kuroko getting up said. "Konori might be getting an accommodation. She managed to subdue many of the espers on her own before she lead away their leader while I took on the rest. Then she managed to defeat their leader at the park, a powerful fire esper at that while saving some civilian though it resulted in the destruction of a vending machine."

"Is this true?" Mikoto looked over to Konori.

"Oh?" Konori who wasn't paying attention said. "Yeah."

"Is something the matter?" Saten asked her. "You seem a little distracted."

"No, it's nothing." Konori said fiddling with her phone. "It's just I should... um, there is this guy."

"Oh, did you meet a boy you like?" Saten said with a teasing tone.

"No! It's not that!" Konori quickly replied. "He's... he's a witness. I let him go home but I need to talk to him about what he saw for the reports." A small blush appeared on her cheeks as she spoke.

"Oh, really and that's all." Saten said sounding like the little sister Konori never had.

"He's... interesting." That was all that she was willing to admit at the moment.

"Well, if he's so _interesting_," Saten said extra emphasis on that word. "maybe you should just ask him out somewhere, so you could interview him for the _report_."

Konori chuckled a little, "Yeah, I should just ask him out... for the interview for the report of course."

"Of course." The other girls said in unison.

Konori picked up her cellphone and walked out of the room for some privacy.

"That's good for her." Kuroko noted. "After the incident with Big Spider and everything it's probably the first time she's liked a guy. I hope it works out for her."

"Still it seems a little silly to to ask a guy out and pretend it's for something like filing a report." Mikoto sighed. "If you like a guy you should just ask him out plain and simple." Mikoto was completely sincere about that, which coming from her that's pretty ironic or plain hypocritical or maybe both.

Either way without her knowledge Konori happened to be talking to a certain boy she liked at that very moment.

In the city of science that was Academy City one would never expect magic to be at work but it was. A tall woman with dark wavy hair looked at the city from the balcony of her hotel as she watched the last few rays of the Sun streak across the sky painting it with brilliant hues of purple and blue against the remaining bits of orange. Just past her was a room with a magical artifacts set out in a magical array. She had performed her spell hours ago and now waited to see how it all would turn out.

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**Authors Notes: This is the first story I've written for this series. This chapter was pretty long but I wanted to get most of the set up our of the way. Anyway this is my first story for the raildex universe so feed back, comments, concerns and reviews are always welcome.**


	2. Chapter 2: The Not Date

**Twist of Fate**

**Disclaimer: I do not own a certain magical index, it's characters or it's elements.**

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Chapter 2: The Not Date

Night came and went in a certain Judgement office and finally a certain teleporter was allowed to go to her down. That very teleporter wasted no time to head off to her dorm and her beloved onee-sama. They were allowed to go but Konori paused for a moment and asked Uiharu for a favor.

"You want me to look up your boyfriend?" The girl with the flowers in her hair asked as she nibbled on her last cookie.

"He's not my boyfriend." A blushing Konori was quick to point out. "I was just hoping to know more about him. Can you look him up? His name is Touma Kamijou."

"Hm?" Uiharu mused to herself as she began to search the name. "That name sounds a little familiar." And with a bing the computer popped out the results. "Here you are."

Konori looked over onto the screen to see Touma's picture. "Yeah, that's him."

"Let's see, he's a Level Zero going to school at-"

"A level zero?" Konori was genuinely surprised that he was an actual level zero after what she saw.

"He seems to be a fairly average student," Uiharu looked over the information that was displayed on her screen. "but that's strange."

"What?"

"The results for the examinations say he has no aim field what so ever. He's gone through the curriculum but he has no powers what so ever."

"Anything else?" Konori was getting more and more curious about Touma.

"There are a number of reports of him made by Anti-Skill. Fights in the middle or a restaurant, a terrorist attack in the Underground Mall and a lot more. They end in the same way, he wasn't at fault and that he was the one that was attacked. Just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Oh, my."

"What?" Konori responded to the concern in the younger girls voice.

"There is another report. An Anti-Skill officer shot him."

"Shot him?!"

"Yes, it was a mistake and he was taken to a hospital and he was to be questioned but he escaped from the hospital after he was treated. The whole thing was eventually dropped."

Both of the girls just turned to each other. Konori was interested in finding out more about him, and let's face it who wouldn't. First she had seen Touma some how stop the flames with no apparent power. Now she found out he was shot and without being fully treated escaped a hospital. She couldn't help but wonder why would anyone do that? How could anyone do anything like that? Everything she found out about him just gave her more questions.

"I'm going home and clean up before I meet him." Konori turned to leave but stopped. "Uiharu, do me a favor and don't use those skills of yours to spy on us." Konori had the feeling that Uiharu might be tempted to hack into the security camera feeds and try and watch them.

Uiharu got very still and chuckled lightly. "Of course not, that would be an abuse of my privileges as a Judgement officer."

"Good." With that Konori left.

Uiharu sighed, "I can't believe she knew I'd do that." Uiharu had actually stayed last so she could use the computer to hack the security feeds and watch them. "I guess I could get Saten to follow them and I can keep looking into who this Touma Kamijou is."

Uiharu quickly picked up the phone to call her friend.

Sometime later at a restaurant called Joseph's stuff was about to get down. The restaurant as unusually empty with only e a few tables being used. The waitresses split what few people arrived far apart leaving the restaurant spacious and empty. Overall the entire restaurant was almost as silent as a tomb.

The Level Five Esper Misaki waited at a booth at the far end when a dark haired girl sat across her.

"Hello Seria." Misaki smiled brightly.

"Give your remotes." Seria told her not in the mood for any games.

"Don't you trust me?"

"Not really." Seria was all business.

"Alright." Misaki sighed handing over her bag filled with remotes.

Misaki was a powerful but without her controls she found it a little hard to focus her power. Seria had known Misaki long enough to know that the Level five was not above using her powers for petty things and Seria was not up for taking chances.

Seria looked into the bag and content turned back the esper, "Alright let's talk."

They really didn't talk at that moment since a waitress came over and took their orders. They continued not to speak for a few more minutes until their orders were brought over. The waitress grew nervous, to her it felt like a fight might break out. Taking the chance she went to break room to get away from the tense situation.

Finally Misaki broke the silence. "We failed." Those words hung in the air for a moment. "We haven't managed to protect him at all. We even lost track of him during World War Three. All we found out was his mother was looking for him and Academy City was keeping it hidden that he was gone. Then you found that TV clip of him in Russia during War World Three."

"..." Seria stared at her not knowing what to say.

Misaki hung her head down, "I had that dream again. The one about his scar. It was about the first time I saw that scar on his back and he told us how he got it. Remember?"

"Of course I remember." Seria said her voice shaking. "That is not something easily forgotten."

"He was just a child. How can someone do that to a child? How can anyone take a knife and hack a child?" Her usual calm composure was falling apart. "How could anyone do that to him? Children threw rocks at him and he never threw them back. He's always been kind no matter how much misfortune was given to him. Then he was sent here and his father must have hated it; sending his son away to barely seeing him just hoping that he'd be safe in this city. And we both know how that turned out."

Seria didn't speak but her calm facade was starting to crack away too and harsh memories she would love to be able to forget filled her mind. Seria fiddled nervously with the red hair band that held her hair back as if that was the only thing she could control.

"The light went into the sky and the feathers danced and we lost him. We lost him..." Misaki started to tear up, the stars in her eyes started to become blurry. "Since then we've tried to protect him and we've failed. And I have to wonder was any of this pain worth it."

"Of course he's worth it." Seria shot back.

"No, he is worth it but are we actually helping him in anyway. Is our grief worth the result? If you can look me in the eye and tell me eyes than I will never bring it up."

Seria looked her into the eye but the words could not come. As much as she'd like to believe they helped the unfortunate boy she didn't believe. They might have managed to keep some trouble from him but both girls were powerless to stop the major events that he seemed to get dragged into. He would still suffer from misfortune and they would suffer from lacking him. Misaki broke eye contact and grabbed her spoon and dug into her parfait she had yet to touch.

"What do you want to tell him?" Seria spoke in a tone barely more than a whisper. "He doesn't know us, we're just strangers." Those words hurt her more than loosing her eye. That simple fact pained her more than what magic Tsuchimikado had done to her. She hated the fact that when Touma saw her he only saw a stranger.

Only feet away of this sad scene one Touma Kamijou entered that restaurant and he quickly found an empty booth. He rubbed his head as the bite marks that Index left him with started to fade. When he told her she couldn't come with him she bite his head, but he insisted since he had to see a Judgement officer and she could get in trouble not being a citizen. He had wanted to leave early but besides his argument with Index he was delayed by a call from his parents. It turns out that they won some sort of lottery and won tickets on a cruise and would be away from a while. Touma was glad by their sudden windfall despite the reminder that his luck wasn't so good.

To arrive early he had to run all the way there, so by the time he arrived he was just glad to sit down. Touma just barely got there before their due time. Still Touma didn't know what to expect.

He certainly wasn't expecting a girl named Saten to follow him in and sneak into the empty booth behind him. Saten had got a message from Uiharu to spy on Konori and Touma and was even sent a picture from his file. Konori had let it slip yesterday where she was to meet Touma and even the time so all Saten had to do is arrive a little earlier and wait for him to show up. The waitress alerted by the ring of the bell by the door went to her new customers. Touma declined to order until Konori arrived. Saten ordered a soup to eat slowly so no one would notice her and she could just sit back and over hear as Konori and Touma talked. It seemed like a perfect plan, she ignored the inherent invasion of privacy since like Uiharu she really wanted to know what made Konori blush so much. Saten didn't see it, Touma was fairly average looking, he seemed a little familiar but she couldn't place where she saw him. Saten mused to herself that maybe she spotted him out a window somewhere once. She quickly shook the thought off as she glimpsed Konori out the window, Saten was afraid that Konori spotted her but that didn't seem to be the case. The bell above the door ran again as Konori entered the restaurant. Saten glanced over carefully to make sure she wasn't spotted and her eyes went wide when she saw Konori. Konori wasn't wearing her usual school uniform but cute outfit that consisted of a black skirt, a red top and a black sweater; that overall the outfit did a good job to show off her feminine charms.

Saten gave a silent nod in approval as she thought,_ 'She looks cute. Good job Konori. You should have no trouble winning him over.'_

"Hello Konori." Touma waved Konori over to his table. "You look great, do you have a date or something after this?"

Both Konori and Saten choked on their own spit hearing that comment.

_'She got dressed like that for you! How dense can you be!_' Saten thought that but Konori was thinking something similar.

"No, no." Konori tried to seem calm and not disheartened by the comment and sat down.

Saten tried to stay still and not give away her presence and just started to sip away at her soup.

"So what did you want to talk to me about?" Touma asked her still not getting the point of the meeting. I'm just going to say it now but he's not going to get it anytime soon. Touma is just very dense when it comes to girl who like him.

"Well," Konori started slowly brushing a few of her hairs behind her ear. "what did you do yesterday? I don't understand what happened there. You just held out your hand and flames were gone."

Touma raised his right hand before him and wriggled his finger as he took a moment to let that question sink in. "It's a little hard to explain."

Sensing the hesitance in his voice Konori stopped him, "I mean you don't have to tell me if you don't want to."

Touma smiled at her and waved her worry off. "No, it's okay. It's just I'm not sure you would believe me."

"Try me." There was a certain playfulness in her voice when she spoke.

"It's my right hand." Touma said simply. "Don't ask how it works, I don't even know really. All I know is that my right hand has the power to cancel out any supernatural power. It doesn't matter if it's an esper ability, magic, or even a miracle from God my hand can cancel it out."

Konori raised a skeptical eye brow, "You're saying that you have a power that allows you to cancel out other peoples powers?" She just seemly ignored the magic comment.

They both flinched when they heard a spit take, what they didn't know that Saten just spat out his soup in shock. Being the a hunter of urban legends Saten was well aware of a rumor that said there was a boy who could cancel out powers and right now it seemed that very boy was right behind her. Normally Saten would have grabbed him and asked him countless questions but reality quickly snapped her back, not only had she spat out soup but she couldn't reveal herself to Konori. Frantically Saten grabbed a bunch of napkins and tried to clean off the soup she spilled on the table, on her top and the dribble that was on her face. Saten certainly couldn't risk this Urban legend see her in that current state. Touma was basically a rock star to her.

Now all while this was happening in that same restaurant two girls happened to spot Touma in the company of a young lady.

"Is that Touma?" Misaki choked out. "With a girl?"

Seria quickly turned around to look and quickly turned back. "It is." She huffed. "Why would a girl be with him?" She knew the answer to that.

"Y-you don't think it's a date." Misaki said the stars in her eyes shone a little less brightly.

Seria took a wii control out of the bag with a star on it and handed it to the girl who sat across her. "Maybe you can check her reasons for being with Touma. I mean, we should make sure that she isn't trying to use him."

"Of course." Misaki took the control and pointed it at Konori and started to use her powers to dig into her mind. While the girl with the stars in her eyes acted more like a girl with greens eyes of jealousy Konori looked at Touma straight into his eyes.

"Do you have anyway of proving it?" Konori gave Touma a very reasonable question.

"I can, do you have a power?"

"I'm a Level three Clairvoyant."

"That's like x-ray vision, right?" Touma scratched his head thinking. "Just try and using your power to look through a wall or something."

Konori went along to it and looked at the wall that blocked the eating area and the kitchen. Her eyes glimmered for a second as her eye sight changed and with hues of bright blues she began to see the outline of people just past the wall. She normally didn't like to use her powers without permission but she didn't see the harm of a quick peak. That was when she felt Touma's right take hers, for a split second she felt his warmth in her hand but then suddenly she heard a sound like glass shattering in her head and her vision went back to normal. She tried to turn her powers back on but she was unable and she turned to Touma in shock.

"Ow!" Misaki shouted as her connection was severed. The effect hurt her enough that her body went ridge and collapsed onto the table. With a rather large squish and a clatter she fell onto her parfait and Seria's coffee and cake. With a low grumble she raised her head, her face was now covered with a small smears of white cream from the cake.

"They're holding hands." Seria said, not even noticing the mess Misaki had made. The tone of her voice could only be described as defeated.

"Why doesn't my power work?" Back at their both Konori questioned Touma.

Touma still hadn't let go of her hand. "As long as I touch you with my right hand you can't use you any powers at all."

Konori looked down at her hand who was still being held by Touma and a small pink blush tinted her cheeks. It could have been the a moment right out of a romantic novel if not for the fact that cell rang and that loud ring caused Touma to jolt and break the hand holding session. Though it might have been more romantic if Touma actually realized he had up until then forgotten to let the hand go.

Saten grabbed her phone and tried to whisper, "Hello?" She was annoyed and her tone did nothing to conceal that fact.

"Saten!" Uiharu called on the other end. "Are you there with Konori and-"

Saten quickly cut her off, "Yes, and they're close I can't talk-"

It was Uiharu's turn to cut her off, "Something happened. Searching his files and as I dug deeper something happened."

"What?" Saten couldn't help but ask.

"I tripped some sort of trigger program when I looked deeper into Anti-Skill files about him, anything beyond school records and you'll get detected."

"What? You had to hack those systems several times."

Uiharu was in fact one of the best hackers in the entire city, for that very reason her Judgement office had just about the best computer security in that city. Uiharu had often hacked files to search out information for cases instead of wasting time by asking for that information. Uiharu was just as surprised as Saten when she was found out.

"There was a trap set up underneath a few layers of programs, it's a warning that alerts people if someone looks into his files. Most people wouldn't be able to notice even after it had been triggered ." Uiharu voice was hoarse and it sounded like she was scared. " I tried to leave as fast as I could once I realized what happened but it was too late."

"Uiharu?" Saten was worried about her friend. "What happened?"

"I got suspended. One of the member of the board of Directors came with Anti-Skill and suspended me from my Judgement work. It's only for two weeks but they said if I ever did something like searching into restricted files again I would be in trouble."

Saten was speechless, not only had Uiharu been caught, punished and she was punished by the very top. Saten was very suspicious about it, for one it seemed like the security didn't really care about hiding Touma's information but they cared who saw it. The security was set up to catch those who saw it and stop them only if they started looking too deep. That would be a complicated means of security, Saten understood that, which meant that someone paid extra attention to him. Now Saten couldn't help but wonder why.

Now while Saten whispered to the phone she failed to notice that Konori was still talking with Touma.

"How can you just be a Level Zero?" Konori questioned Touma. "A power like that-"

"It's not an esper ability." Touma told her flatly.

"What?"

"I've had it all my, since before I arrived in Academy City."

"So what? Are you saying you're a Gemstone?"

"No, it's not an esper ability. The test the city runs all say they can't detect anything from me. No AIM field or anything. What ever it is, it isn't an esper power."

"That's still very impressive."

"Trust me it's not that good. It cancels out any good fortune I might have so I only get bad luck."

"Oh, it can't be that bad."

There is something to say about tempting fate especially when it deals with Touma Kamijou. Right after Konori said those words the faint sound of a bell rang out. The bell sounds soft and sweetly like the chirping of a bird and it informed someone that the door was opened. Yet such a lovely sound only would bring misfortune. Coming through the door were two students dressed in the uniform of one Tokiwadai. One happened to be the Level Four teleporter Kuroko Shirai and the other was Mikoto Misaka the Level Five Electro master. Though their presence might not normally bring bad tiding their eyes happened to turn to the booth with Touma and Konori.

Mikoto's normal expression quickly turned to one of surprise, then turned one of shock followed by one of anger. Suddenly bright blue sparks shot sparked off her bangs.

Touma reacted in his usual fashion, "Such misfortune." He couldn't shake the feeling that something bad was about to happen.

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**Authors Notes: Notes time in the rail gun manga Saten and Touma met but since the english translation has yet to get to the end of those events I'm just going to say neither really remembers the meeting. It was busy time for all of them. Anyway I know I can be a little bit dialogue heavy and I am but I am trying to put more descriptions and narration so I'm trying. Anyway I'm glad I got such great response for the first chapter. I hoped you like this one and feel free to leave a review. Next chapter Mikoto zaps and Misaki and Seria speak to Touma. Other stuff happens too like property damage.**


	3. Chapter 3: Reunion

**Twist of Fate**

**Disclaimer: I do not own a certain magical index, it's characters or it's elements.**

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Chapter 3: Reunion

The waitress heard the bell ring and walked out to greet the new customers. She quickly spotted the new girls and was just in time to see the slightly taller girl with tea colored hair stare down at the guy in a booth. That girl had sparks shooting off her bangs and a look of anger on her face.

Without any warning this girl yelled out, "You idiot!" And a bolt of lighting shot out from her straight at him filling the room with light.

Had this unfortunate boy not stretched out his right hand and had that hand not blocked the attack until it had vanished things could have been a lot worse.

The waitress gulped and stepped back into the other room and pretended she didn't see that.

Anyone who wasn't Mikoto or Touma looked in awe and wonder.

"Whoa!" Saten stuck her head out of her booth. "You really can cancel out peoples abilities."

"Huh?" Was Touma's clever response.

"Saten?" Konori spoke up. "Huh? What are you doing here?"

Saten looked at her wide eyed and crooked smile as she realized she was revealed.

The door burst open and Uiharu ran in gasping for breath. "Saten..." The suspended judgement officer had been running and struggled for breath entering the room.

When she had found out that Saten was in the same room as Touma she was about to tell her to leave not wanting to get her in trouble but then things had gotten tense and lost the call when someone discharged electricity in that room. Uiharu was on her way to her apartment when the call dropped and was close enough to the restaurant and fearing something bad had happened ran to Saten. Now gasping she found herself being stared at.

"Okay, Uiharu what are you doing here?" Konori asked her since she never got an answer from Saten.

"...I was hungry?" Uiharu tried to play it off.

Konori just stared at her with disbelief. "I'll ask later." With that she turned to Mikoto. "Why did you just try to zap him?"

Mikoto was stunned, shocked you could say if you loved terrible puns. She had walked in and saw Touma sitting in a booth with a girl and jumped to conclusions. Now knowing who that girl was made it worse.

"K-Konori... you and him?" Mikoto vividly remembered the way that the older girl had been talking about the boy and now she realized who that boy really was.

"Uiharu, you missed it!" Saten shouted. "Mikoto just zapped him and just sort of slapped the lighting away. He's the guy."

"What are you talking about?" Uiharu looked on confused.

"He's the urban legend. Remember? The one about the guy who can cancel out any powers. I just saw him."

"Huh?" Touma decided to speak up at this point. "You have a little something there." He pointed at her mouth.

Saten realized that she hadn't managed to get all the soup from off her face. Embarrassed Saten let out a squeal and turned around frantically trying to get the soup dribble off her face.

"Why did you try and shock him?!" Konori turned to the electric esper. "He didn't do anything and you shocked him. If he was anyone else you could have really hurt him."

She had a good point, who would just randomly attack some guy just like that.

"Well..." Mikoto tried to explain as her face turned beet red.

Konori believed that it was wrong to just openly attack someone, most people would agree with her on that matter.

Mikoto's lips moved but no words came out, she saw Touma sitting there and she didn't think she just attacked him. It didn't helped that everyone had turned and looked at her waiting for her to answer.

"Kuroko..." Mikoto turned to her roommate in hopes that she could help her out of her problem.

Kuroko's jaw had dropped and the color had faded from her face. She started at Touma in utter shock. Her training as a Judgement Officer had taught her to think fast and come to conclusions just as fast and she saw what was happening. Kuroko thought to herself, '_This Man! It's the same man that has charmed my precious onee-sama! Now he's managed to sway Konori's heart! My sempai! How is this possible! What could they possibly both see in him! What kind of power does he posses! What power allows him to sway the hearts of young maidens!_'' A lot of people wonder that one. _'I can't let him get Uiharu and Saten too!_''

Kuroko snapped out of her stunned state and grabbed Uiharu.

"Ah!" Uiharu let out as she found herself grabbed in a head lock. "What are you doing?"

Kuroko placed a free hand on Saten and yelled out, "I will save you both. Onee-sama, I will save you! I will find a way to save you from his sway!" With that said she teleported away with the two girls.

As they vanished with a wush Mikoto was sure she saw disappointment plastered on Saten's face. Things were certain to get interesting later on but overall that quick exit did not help Mikoto at the moment.

"So why did you attack him?" Konori repeated the question.

"Don't worry about." Touma sighed exasperated. "She attacks me so much I've sort of gotten used to."

"I don't attack you that much!" Mikoto retorted her face turning another shade of red.

"Yes, you do!" Misaki shouted out from the booth where she had been watching this unfold. Misaki got up and walked towards the electro master, she stumbled a little as she stepped forwards.

Misaki was probing Konori's mind when Touma touched her and cancelled out her mental out and when that happened there was a snap back which resulted in her becoming a little dizzy. Had Touma touched Konori on her head or directly canceled the mental out by touching Misaki herself and not indirectly she wouldn't have gotten the unwanted effect.

"I know for a fact that you zap him almost every time you see him." Misaki wagged her finger and Mikoto that action nearly caused her to tip over.

Had Seria not jumped up and helped steady the esper Misaki would have fallen over.

"Misaki?" Touma questioned. "Kumokawa? What are you doing here?"

Seria cringed hearing him call her that name since they used to be closer. Lately both her and Misaki had been feeling a pull towards Touma and remembering how things were did not help their longing. Seria questioned why all of the sudden they couldn't ignore his absence. Alone that feeling made Misaki act a little more bold that usual.

"What do you want?!" Mikoto yelled at her level five rival.

"Touma..." Misaki said, she gulped it down before she spoke again. "You attack Touma. Don't think that I haven't heard the rumors about the Third Level Five being defeated by a Level Zero. At least when it came to number one it was done out of eyes but my clique, as well as a number of other people, have seen you shoot your lighting at him only for him to cancel it."

Mikoto gulped hearing that, just their trip to the under ground mall there were countless people who saw her zap him. Her heart started to race and she wonder how many times had she really tried to zap him. She remembered not too long ago she did hit him and he was unable to block it because he'd been shot by a gun, she actually hurt him. She could feel everyone with their eyes on her.

She didn't have a good comeback and no reply. Mikoto started to panic and for a moment she lost control of herself and electricity surged out. The others looked away as blinding light filled the restaurant and it didn't help that the extra electricity started to cause all the lights to explode. Electricity flowed out of her into the building burning through the wires in the building and breaking the electronics that they were connected to. Seria and Misaki quickly ducked under a table and Touma quickly helped Konori under their table. Suddenly all the the glass windows shattered and their noise was enough to snap Mikoto out of it. Mikoto looked around in shock watching at all the damage she had done and was just glad that no one was hurt. She let her emotions over power her judgement and it made her lose control of her powers just for a moment.

Touma looked up as they all started to crawl from under the tables. "Oh no."

Misaki and Seria shared a look, they had kept tabs on Touma and knew as well as he did what tended to happened next.

Touma grabbed Konori's hand and pulled her along, "We have to run."

He slammed the door open and pulled her along through it.

"What?" Konori tried to ask but she was just pulled along.

"Run!" Seria and Misaki yelled together running after them.

"What?!" Mikoto yelled out.

When they were gone the door opened and revealed the scared waitress standing behind her burly manager who glared at the esper. Normally Touma would get blamed for the damage caused by and esper or a magician but since everyone else left Mikoto was left to take the blame.

Well, she did do it.

After a few minutes of running the group found themselves stopping to catch a breath, what they didn't realize was that they entered into a hotel that rented by the hour in a less reputable part of town. They quickly panicked and raced outside hopping no one would see them. A man was walking by and just stared at them as their faces turned red. His eyes clearly dictated what he assumed happened, and with a sly smile he gave Touma a thumbs up, "Lucky bastard." Mumbling that he left. Let's face it if you see a guy coming out a hotel with three attractive girls and everyone looks rather exhausted you'd think the same thing.

Touma, Konori, Misaki and Seria could have dropped dead there out of embarrassment. Misaki had half a mind to erase the man's memories but was distracted when Konori's phone rang. Konori blushing dismissed herself to a few feet away to answer the call that would tell her that Uiharu was suspended for a while.

Touma looked over to Misaki who had been gasping for breath for a while now.

"Are you alright?" Touma didn't just ask because of her tired breathing or the fact that her shirt was a mess but the fact that it looked like she was about to cry. Then he noticed that Seria was just as sad. "What's wrong?" Our noble hero couldn't help helping people.

"We miss you." Seria said as quiet as a mouse her emotions getting the better of her.

She didn't know if this was the chance to fix things or just break her heart but she had to take the chance.

"What?" Touma asked.

"We know about your memory." Misaki said with a tired breath. "The night you lost your memory you called me. You told me about this nun who was going to have her memory wiped. I being the famous Level Five that could control memories, who better for the job and we had been friends so you knew I'd say yes."

"But it was too late." Seria continued the said tale. "By the time we found you the damage had been done. You didn't know who we were. We didn't know how to tell you."

Touma looked at both of them stunned by what they had told him.

Misaki took out her cell phone and showed him a picture that was on it, "See."

Touma looked at the picture and he recognized all three figures. It was a picture of a younger Touma and next to him was a young blonde girl with stars in her eyes posing for the camera as she held him and on his other side a young dark haired girl holding onto Touma. They all smiled in that picture and it was just obvious how happy and close they were. Touma looked back the girls and saw the stark contrast of how they were then and how they were now. He hated that unknowingly he hurt them, something inside his heart stirred, maybe it was a faint memory or something else but he knew he had to do something.

Touma didn't think but he grabbed both girls and hugged them, "I'm sorry. I'm sorry I hurt you. Yes, I don't remember what happened before or anything from my previous life but I'm sorry. I didn't want to hurt anyone by telling them I'd forgotten but I still hurt you. Let me make it up to you and start over. If you could I would love to know about you two and who I was before."

They pulled away to see Touma's warm welcoming smile and they couldn't help but smile back.

"I think we can do that." Misaki said happily.

"Touma..." Seria said holding back tears of joy. "Call me Seria. Before you used to call me Seria."

Touma offered to trade numbers but he found in his phone their numbers were already there. They promised to get back together and tell him about the past. As they walked away Seria felt that for moment it was like he olds days when she and Misaki got along and Touma was their closes friend.

Touma watched them leave and Konori returned having called Uiharu and gotten a clarification on what happened that got her suspended. "Sorry about that. I have to deal with some Judgement work. I'm sorry we didn't get to talk more."

"It's no problem we can talk another time."

"Yeah, I'd like that." Konori smiled to the young man, despite everything that happened he seemed unfazed by the strangeness. Something about him just seemed unwavering. "I'd like to get together another time. By the way who were those two girls?"

"Two old friends." Touma replied, his words were definitive.

Many things happened across the city by the end of the day. Mikoto returned to her dorm after being forced to pay for all the damage she caused and found that the Dorm Mother had been informed by the manager of that very destruction. Mikoto wasn't going to face legal trouble since it was ruled an accident but that didn't stop the dorm mother from snapping her neck. Saten searched the internet for every everything she could find out about Touma. Awaki tried on her new uniform as she prepared to starts school again.

One thing of note that happened in the city, a magician called Itsuwa had just started unpacking in her new apartment. She wanted to call Touma and tell him everything but she was busy with preparing everything for her first day of school. She looked at her newly acquired school uniform and sighed, "I guess I'll just tell him tomorrow at school."

Little did any of them know that a battle was looming towards Touma.

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**Authors Nots: Things to expect: Itsuwa and Touma meet, Touma meets Awaki, Also Touma will met and battle Sogiita. Might be a little while till the next post. I'm looking for work and been loosing my writing mojo and I do have other things I'm writing. And i haven't updated some of the other stories in a while. So leave a review if you want to. Also just interested but let me know who you guys ship with Touma and just a like a sentence why. Feel free to put in weird or crack pairings this story got me thinking and I'm curious to what you guys have to say about that.**


	4. Chapter 4: Challenge

**Twist of Fate**

**Disclaimer: I do not own a certain magical index, it's characters or it's elements.**

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Chapter 4: Challenge

Touma was feeling rather content with is life when he arrived at school, he had reconnected with some old friends and that alone was reason for him to smile. He also managed to leave his apartment without having his head bitten by Index. He had no idea of the things that were happening around him and what truly was behind it all.

That morning Himegami had been showing Awaki around the school. Komoe was helping Itsuwa with a few last minute things before she could go to class. Neither of those events were the start of the trouble to come, actually the trouble wasn't even in a that high school.

Shiage Hamazura a member of ITEM and a level zero had just stole a car and was far way from that school. The reason he stole the car was because the other members of ITEM insisted on going shopping and they wanted a car to take them. Hamazura intended to bring the car back later but was distracted. As he parked the car it shook before he could react the door was forced open and he was pulled out.

He found himself looking at a high school student with his dark spiky hair was contrasted by the headband. He wore an unusual white uniform and a shirt with the rising sun on it.

"You can't park there!" He yelled at the Level Zero. "That's for emergency parking only." He had parked in a red zone but just barely.

Hamazura found himself a lose for words. "Are you serious?"

"Yes, it could be dangerous if you parked there."

"Why did you rip the door off?! You could have just asked me to move the car! Mugino is going to kill me."

"Mugino? As in the Meltdowner?"

"Yeah, why?"

"I'm Gunha Sogiita. I'm one of the Level Five like her. We met once. She beat me and I would like a rematch."

"She's busy. And trust me I've fought her and you don't want to fight her."

The would be hero stared at him, "You fought her? Did you win?"

"I guess."

"What level are you?"

"I'm a level zero."

"Oh, I heard a level zero managed to beat number four. You have to have some guts to take down a level five." He blinked for a second. "Wait, a while ago I heard of a level zero beat who number one and number three, are you that one?"

"No, no." Hamazura shook his head despite still being gripped by Sogiita. "That's another guy, I call him teacher." Hamazura smirked thinking back about Touma and after the incident in Hawaiian on the plane back to Academy City the stories Worst told him. Worst only told him the stories to annoy Accelerator and Mikoto.

"That guy has to have some guts."

"I guess he does." The man with light hair said. "I've seen him do somethings." He wasn't talking about Hawaii he was talking about how Touma attracted girls to him like he was magnet when drunk.

"What's his name?"

"Touma Kamijou, why?" An idea flashed in head. "Please tell me you don't want beat him up because he's a level zero who beat two Level fives."

"No, why would I?" In fact Sogiita loved the fact that a level zero beat level fives, he thought it was a great show of guts. "That guts beating power, I want to meet him."

"Oh, okay." Hamazura told him what school Touma went to.

"Great now I can meet him and fight him."

"What? Why fight him?"

"So I can test my guts against his." Sogiita smiled and let the man go and quickly ran off.

Hamazura panicked looked around, Mugino was going to be upset about the car and now he had accidentally set one of level fives after Touma, he didn't know who to be worried about more. He decided to call Touma and tell him about it. The call was not answered and all he could do is leave a voice mail.

Back at A certain high school Touma's story started. Himegami sat down on her chair.

Touma gave her a friendly greeting, "Good morning."

"Oh, good morning." She replied happy that he had noticed her though her voice didn't give it away.

"You're usually in here earlier."

"Yes, I was showing someone around the school. They just started." Himegami said in her usual monotone.

"A friend of yours?"

"Not really, we just met. She's actually a year ahead of us."

Before they could continue their conversation the blue haired Aogami Pierce entered the room and went right to Touma.

"Kami!" He turned to his friend. "I just heard that there are two girls starting school today and one of them is entering our class."

Though it wasn't noticed there was as light frown on Himegami's face, she felt her one notable thing was that she was the new transfer student and that was about to go.

"And you know what I heard?" The blue haired boy gave him a wry smile. " I heard it was arranged for her to be in this specific home room. What new girl have you charmed?"

"Why do you think this girl even knows me?"

"I've been paying attention. So tell me what kind of girl is she? Loli? Goth Girl? A girl who wears glasses? A tsundere? A childhood friend?" This would have continued for many minutes had a teacher not walked in.

The pink haired woman that looked more like she belonged in an elementary school rather than teaching high school got in front of the class.

She cleared her throat before she turned to her students, "I have something to announce. A transfer student will be joining us today!" That got the usual gasps from the class. "This transfer student is a girl -congratulation, you perverted wolves- don't be too disappointed, kitties-"

The class broke into cheer and chatter and Touma started to get a strange feeling.

"So introduce yourself." Komoe said waving the girl in.

Before she could even say anything Touma yelled out, "ITSUWA!"

"I knew it. You do know her." Aogami said annoyed. His words were drowned out by the various angry mumbles from male students annoyed that Touma already knew the girl.

Quickly Touma got up and ran out of the room taking Itsuwa with him.

"Just everyone wait a moment." Komoe told them before she stepped outside closing the door.

"Itsuwa! What are you doing here?!" Touma was quick to get to the point.

"What's the matter?" Itsuwa asked. "Did I do something to upset you?"

"So you know her?" Komoe asked.

"Yes, she's a magician like Stiyl."

"Huh?!" Itsuwa questioned. "You told her?! You shouldn't be telling her!"

"She's met Stiyl and even had to use magic once to save someone." Though he knew that Komoe didn't know everything about the magic side she had used magic before and even spoke to Stiyl a few times. Though he would prefer to keep her from getting more involved. "She knows something but nothing much."

"I see." Itsuwa nodded. "Well, Necessarius and Academy City have both agreed that you have become somewhat of a target by magical cabals and such that having someone with magical knowledge and skills to help you solve them would be best for everyone."

Touma face palmed, "Am I really that much trouble?"

"No, not at all. It's just someone to help you with my skills would help prevent damage done to the city."

"So you enrolled as a student? Isn't that against the agreement. You could lose the ability to use magic-"

"No not at all." The young magician quickly explained. "I've been marked, I should say my record has. I will not be involved in any classes that deal directly with the power curriculum program. My file also includes a note that I will not be participating in of the process to gain powers, something about being allergic to the chemicals."

Touma looked at her for a moment, its was a little known fact that one in about two hundred students couldn't have the power curriculum program done with them some would have allergies to the chemicals that would cause them harm or brain anomalies that would lead to similar results. It seemed like they were making sure she couldn't easily access information of the science side the magic side might want.

Itsuwa continued to explain, "So I was sent to your school to protect you should you need it." In away Touma understood it, she was his age and would blend in easily in the school and he knew the Amakusa were more than eager to blend in. Now just wearing the school winter uniform she blended in. "In this way I will be close to you and help you stop any threat should one arise." She didn't look at his face as she could feel her own turn red. "So I was allowed to move here and I got a dorm and enrolled."

"Oh, another one." Komoe sighed noticing her reaction.

"Well, thanks I guess." Touma told her. "I'm sorry that I caused you the trouble to move here."

"No, you've done so much for everyone this is no sacrifice at all." She blushed even more.

Komoe sighed noticing that Touma didn't notice the clear signs of a crush, "Okay, this is beyond my controls and I've told Kamijou not to get into trouble but I know he does." She gave a slight glare to him. "I can't really understand everything and I just know you'll do what is right but since both of you are now my students please try not to do anything dangerous. And please come back safely."

Itsuwa hadn't known Komoe long and actually thought she was a little girl in the wrong school at first, but she could tell she was a loving and caring teacher. Needless to say both students promised to stay safe. Komoe promised to keep Itsuwa being a magician secret and with that all settled they went back to the classroom so Itsuwa could introduce herself.

"Alright now, Itsuwa you can take that seat next to Kamijou since Tsuchimikado is away." Komoe pointed itsuwa over after the introduction.

After that a lot of people gave glares to both Itsuwa and Touma though neither seemed to notice. Touma tried to relax since it didn't seem like there was any threat so he could enjoy sometime with a friend and he was sure Index would be happy to see Itsuwa again.

Nothing happened for about an hour when suddenly the class room door slammed open and standing there was a boy in a white school uniform.

"Who is Touma Kamijou?!" He yelled out.

Everyone quickly pointed out Touma, Itsuwa in fact reached for her bag and the spear in it just in case. There was an intensity in the boys voice that worried everyone.

"I'm Gunha Sogiita the Seventh Level Five and I''ve come here to challenge you!"

The class was stunned into silence, well, expect Touma who yelled, "WHAT?!"

"I want to fight you!"

"Wait-!"

Touma tried to stop him but it was too late as something hit Sogiita in the head knocking to the floor. Standing above the esper was the gym teacher with a long pony, the students knew her as Yomikawa.

"You idiot!" Yomikawa yelled at Sogiita. "You can't just walk into a school like that. You set off every silent alarm. You know how much paper work it's going to be!? I had to call of a squad of Anti-Skill that was heading here." She knew the trouble Sogiita could be as she was the one who was most often sent to deal with him. By the way that was the seventh class he looked for Kamijou in so it wasn't hard for her to track him. "So why did you come?"

That was when Fukiyose spoke up, the girl with large breast and large forehead said, "He challenged Kamijou to a fight."

Yomikawa had her palm meet her forehead, "If you want to challenge someone to a duel you can fill out a form."

"Wait, what?!" Touma was shocked that everyone was being so blase about it.

The truth was that people often tested out their powers against one another but their were regulations such as filling out a for, Touma didn't have any memories of previous fights because most battles he witnessed were back alley brawls that were spur of the moment and he himself was never challenged because of his status as a level zero. By filling out the proper forms students would be allowed to use the field of a school and have a referee to make sure it didn't get out of hand. It was mostly used as a way for espers to practice and test out their powers.

"I don't want to fight him!" Touma quickly shouted, can you blame the guy for not wanting to fight one of the strongest people in the city.

"You can't forfeit!" Fukiyose shouted. "He challenged you and it's not just between you and him, both of you represent your schools. Should you quit you will be letting down our entire school. You should at least have the dignity of our school in mind and show up and fight him, at least if you lose you tried and maintain your dignity and that of the school."

The entire class turned to turned to Touma as if judging him for quitting.

Touma groaned knowing they wouldn't let him off . "Such misfortune. I'll do it."

The class cheered though in all honesty they assumed he'd probably be badly beaten, they didn't want to see him hurt but they kinda wanted to see a fight.

"That's better, we'll show off each other's guts." Sogiita shouted getting up off the floor.

"Fine," Yomikawa sighed, "the fight will be this Friday an hour after school at the field behind the school. I'll set everything up." She grabbed Sogiita. "You'll fill out the paper work and then we'll have to deal with your truancy."

She had very little patience for the esper, he meant well but often caused more trouble than it was worth. She was actually hoping Touma might knock a little sense into him.

Touma was worried about what was to come and he didn't pay attention to class for the rest of the day.

When classes ended Fukiyose refused to let him go, "You are going to represent the entire school so even if you will most likely be beaten miserably you should perform at your highest possible performance. I will train you until then."

She wouldn't take no for an answer and most of the training was just forcing Touma to run around the track field and dodge whatever she threw at him. As for Itsuwa, she wanted to help but she was dragged away by the rest of the class that wanted to take her out to eat to get to know her better.

Little did any of them known that rumors of the fight had started to spread all over the city. The powers of the city did make it so few people actually knew Touma was fighting or even were the fight was being held but still some people managed to find out. Just on the first day Touma got calls from Hamazura, Accelerator, Misaki, Konori, Seria, Mikoto and a dozen other people trying to see if it was real. Finding out about the fight from Maika Index promptly bit Touma's head.

Still he made plans, he didn't have any interest in fighting Sogiita but he didn't want to get beat bloody.

A few days later Kuroko was in Tokiwadai after class when she heard two people talking.

"Did you hear about the queen?" One red haired girl asked.

"No, what?" Her friend with wavy brown hair questioned.

"There has been a rumors going about her. For the last few days she's been staring out the window, people think she's love sick."

"You don't mean-?"

"Yes."

"Even the Queen can have a crush?"

Kuroko didn't make it her business to spy on people but it caught her attention and she couldn't turn away, so she hide behind a pillar and listened.

"From what I hear some boy had won her heart. It is said he's the only person she can't use her powers on." The red haired girl continued.

Kuroko flinched hearing that. She thought to herself, '_What? It can't be him again!'_

"Really?" The girl with brown hair asked.

"Yes, it does make seem more approachable, to hear even a level five could fall in love."

Her friend tapped her chin, "I heard something about her and love before."

"What another rumor?"

"It's a story, I can't say if it's true but there is talk. Late last July something happened. It was rather late when the Queen got a phone call."

"From who?"

"I can't say, all I know is that it got her attention and made a commotion. She got dressed and ran out as quickly as she could." The brown haired girl started off.

"In the middle of the night?"

"Yes, the dorm mother stopped her and this what was so strange... The Queen begged."

"She begged?"

"Yes, she didn't try to manipulate her she simply begged her. Imagine it, a level five begging to be let out after curfew, what would make her so desperate? I wasn't there but some people say she said that someone she cared about needed her help. The Dorm mother moved by her humility allowed her to leave if she got someone to take her. She called someone and in minutes someone with a town car picked her up."

"So was the person she went to help this boy?"

The girl grew silent and thumbed her hair. "The Queen didn't show up for a few days afterwards. When she arrived it was just before curfew and her eyes had been red as if she had been crying. Now the Dorm Mother asked what was wrong and the few girls up at this time swear she heard her say : I was too late to help him. He's gone."

"Gone? Like...?"

"I think so. The Queen stayed in her room for a few days afterwards and some people could swear that heard her sobbing, the Dorm Mother was forced to take her food and she refused to talk about it. Eventually she got out and asked her clique never to bring it up."

"Could these boys be the same one?"

"I don't know. Either way I would hope that she finds happiness, to have your heart broken and find love again and to lose it once more would just be horrible."

Kuroko walked away, she didn't know what to believe but if Misaki was falling for a certain ape she would support it, then maybe Mikoto would move on and she'd have a shot.

Eventually the days passed and day finally came. Crowds had gathered on the field behind a humble high school, it was probably just a few more than a hundred in attendance. Most were from the high school that found itself hosting the event and supporters from Sogiita's high school. There were also other people there.

"What the hell?" Awaki in her uniform walked out of class. "People are this excited for this fight." Normally she would walk back to her dorm but she was interested and decided to stay a little.

The members of ITEM were also there. The young woman with brown hair whose outfit showed off way more leg than one would expect in Fall looked around. "Look at all the people super excited."

"Kinuhata." Mugino a tall elegant young woman and level five esper asked, "Are you sure this is the place?"

"Yes, Hamazura gave me the address. I'm super sure. Now we just have to find Hamazura and Takitsubo."

Passing them was a girl in a maid outfit ridding on top of drum like robots. "Bentos for sale! Come get something to eat before the fight starts! You might not be hungry once people start bleeding!"

Somehow she had sold twelve bentos already yelling that.

"Tsuchimikado." A girl in a yellow maid outfit called out to her. Maria was Seria's sister talked to her fellow maid in training. "How are the sales going for you?" She held out a tray full of the box lunches.

"I should have sold more by now." Maika told her. "I'm just worried my friend is going to be fighting and I know he's going to get himself hurt."

"Oh, whose fighting?" Maria was in for a surprise.

Not too far from their a busty blonde walked panting to the school.

"There you are." Seria scolded her seeing her coming.

"Sorry. I ran all the way up here from where the car dropped me off." Misaki told her trying to catch her breath.

Seria sighed, "It's not even a long walk. Did you do it?"

"The most I was able. I checked and know one of any importance knows who Number Seven is fighting. I've tried to erase as many memories of those who did know."

"Still a lot of people found there way here. It would have been more if we didn't interfere and I'm sure some other board members helped too."

"Well, I'm here I could simply erase everyone memories now."

"No, I want to make sure everyone is here. Besides Number Seven's powers block your abilities and so does Touma's and they might notice people forgetting on a large scale. We wait and see if anyone here could cause trouble and we erase their memories. Anyone else we might just alter their memories a little. Just enough to keep Touma from getting any more attention."

They left the entrance as another group showed up, "This is the ape's school?"

A certain teleporter commented on the state of the school, it all looked like they had quickly put together a fair around the fight. There were stands set up selling food and a few games all to raise money for the school and the various clubs it had. Kuroko seemed to think it was remarkable how they took advantage of such an event.

"I can't believe it." Saten spoke up. "This is his school and I went here for extra lessons. I can't believe he's going to fight Sogiita."

"I can't believe the idiot agreed to it." Mikoto muttered to herself.

Uiharu questioned Mikoto, "Didn't you fight Sogiita once?"

"Yeah, and he's crazy. The guys is just weird I don't even think he knows how his power works. Still he managed to catch my rail gun at 30% with his teeth."

"Wow!" Saten said in shock. "So who do you think will win? I mean I heard a rumor that you fought a level zero and he beat you, from what I could see Kamijou is that level zero isn't he?"

Mikoto flinched at her words, "It's not that simple."

"You guys showed up too?" A familiar face walked up to them.

"Konori?" Kuroko asked her superior. "What are you doing here?"

"Uh, well." Konori scratched the back of her head. "Well, me and Touma have been talking lately on the phone especially after I found out he was going to fight. I'm just worried about it and thought I should be here."

"You called him by his first name." Saten pointed out. "Are you two getting close?" Saten said with a very knowing tone.

"Eh,... maybe a little." Konori had been calling his by his first name by accident and he never told her to stop.

And by the field where the last minutes touches were being put together a tall and beautiful woman was wearing a long red coat her long silky black hair cascade behind her back down to her shoulders. Her dark eyes focused on the equipment before her. She could feel eyes watching her and turned to see a tall woman standing few feet away. She was wearing a black suit and skirt that stood in a harsh contrast to the other woman's green track suit.

"Can I help you?" She said trying to be polite.

"You're Satomi Kihara?" Yomikawa questioned with a grimace on her face.

"Yes I am. I'm the researcher sent here to study Gunha Sogiita's abilities. They are certainly something." Actually she was just sent over that day and she didn't want to be there. She wasn't the highest ranking researcher in her family and most of them out ranked her and she had little say. Which is why she was chosen to go on this research trip, none of the Kiharas wanted to go since Sogiita's powers were something none had been able to figure out so coming back without any answers made them look like a fool. They only found out about the fight about an hour earlier and she was forced to come when they found out Touma was also to fight, Touma was someone that all the Kiharas were weary off and they knew the Director of Academy city had certain plans for him though they didn't know what they were. Satomi pulled out some papers, "Would you like to see my permits?"

"No, I'm sure you have them." Yomikawa said, she didn't trust researchers having seen too many mistreat children for their own research. She was going to make sure that Satomi didn't have a chance to hurt Touma or Sogiita.

Satomi gave her a friendly and fake smile. Satomi just wanted to scan the fight and see what data she could collect from Sogiita's power and leave.

People had started to get their places by the field to watch the upcoming fight.

A nun with clothes whose design would seem more fitting for a tea cup spoke to a short pink haired picture. "Touma! I can't believe he's getting himself into more trouble."

"Don't worry sister." Komoe tried to reassure her. "Yomikawa is going to referee the match and make sure no one gets hurt."

"But why does he have to fight at all?"

"That's kind of my classes fault. They got carried away and now its seems to be about the honor of the school."

"Sounds stupid." The young nun pouted.

Not too far away from the field near the stands Itsuwa was walking by the stands. She was feeling a bit of a failure as on her first day Touma got challenged to a fight and today was the day of the fight and she couldn't do anything. She was given a list of rules and she wasn't supposed to fight espers using magic as it could destabilize the balance between magic and science. Touma told her not to worry since it was a challenge and not one that could cost him his life but still she worried about him being hurt. She was supposed to protect him and she didn't feel like she was doing it.

She wasn't really paying attention where she was walking when she bumped into another girl. "I'm sorry."

"No, I'm sorry." Konori told her. "I wasn't paying attention. I had to get away from friends for a while, things got tense when one of them was asking me some questions about this guy. I just told them I was going to get a snack."

"Not, it's fine. I wasn't paying attention. I'm just worried about someone..." Itsuwa let her words trail off.

"Oh, is something wrong?" Konori had natural desire to help people which made her such a good Judgement officer.

"It's hard to explain but I know one of the people whose supposed to fight and I'm worried about him."

"You don't happen to know Touma?" Konori questioned.

"Yes, do you?" Itsuwa was thinking that she might have to look into Touma's contacts and friends.

"Touma?" A nearby girl spoke up hearing the name.

As if by the will of fate Konori, Itsuwa and Seria had run into each other and all because of one guy. Though if someone actually ran the odds they weren't all that amazing considering they were there at the same place for a reason in about a group of a hundred people.

"Another two." Seria sighed. "I'm assuming you two are here to make sure Touma comes out of this in one piece."

Both girls gave a some what shy nod. Seria was actually amazed on how many attractive girls Touma attracted though not surprised.

That was when Misaki came over snacking on a pink cotton candy treat, "I was talking to some of the girls running the cotton candy stand and-" She turned to look at the other girls. "Oh, hello. Who are you?" They introduced themselves and the situation, Misaki was quick to understand why and that gave her an idea. "Oh, I've just got an idea. Originally it was just for me and Seria but two more might make it more interesting. If you really want to cheer Touma onto victory I suggest you come with me."

The other three girls had no idea what Misaki was talking about and her mischievous smile didn't help put them in ease, still they followed the blonde.

The crowd started to gather as the time agreed upon for the fight arrived. One side of the field stood Sogiita his jackets draped behind him flowing in the window. His arms crossed with a small smile on his face eager for the fight to start.

* * *

**Authors Notes: Okay so next chapter will actually have the fight. This is about ten pages so it got a longer than I thought I thought it was going to be. So let me know what you guys think in review form. Few things so what do you guys think did Maria fall for Touma too? I heard some people say she did but I never got that. So what do you think Misaki has planned? I know but what it is but what do you guess? FYI since there is no good explanation for Sogiita's power I'm just going to go with rule of cool with it**


	5. Chapter 5: Battle

**Twist of Fate**

**Disclaimer: I do not own a certain magical index, it's characters or it's elements.**

* * *

Chapter 5: Battle

Sogiita was at one end of the field, the wind blowing his jacket giving it the appearance of cape. His arms crossed as he looked out to the other side as if waiting for the battle to start.

Suddenly out of the the crowd a blue haired boy walked to the middle of the field. He held out a bull horn, "Ladies and Gentlemen! Today Gunha Sogiita Number Seven Level Five will face off against our very own Magnet of Misfortune Level Zero Touma Kamijou!" The crowd broke into applause and cheers at the announcement. "That's your cue Kami~!"

Suddenly the song "Let's Be Friends" started to blare from across the field. Touma, wearing his gym clothes, made his way from the other side. Hamazura was by his side as his corner man and Accelerator with his futuristic cane was on the other side. Holding up an mp3 player plugged into a speaker were the blonde Fremea and the rather short clone Last Order. Holding up signs that read 'Touma' and 'Kamijou' were Himegami and Takitsubo. Hamazura wanted Takitsubo to wear a bunny girl outfit but they didn't have enough time to get it. The crowds just stared at them confused, they wanted to make an entrance but judging from the crowd it was lacking.

"I knew we should have gotten a bunny girl outfit." Hamazura mumbled.

"Maybe another song would have been better." Takitsubo pointed out.

"No butts might have been good." Himegami added. "You know from that anime."

The smaller girls turned off the speakers while Accelerator glared. The number one esper came since Last Order insisted and Yomikawa asked him to come in case Sogiita went too far in the fight and needed to be stopped.

"This where you went?!" Mugino annoyed shouted as she came over. Hamazura flinched hearing those angry words.

"I'm sorry."

"Not yet. Let's see how you'd look like with a buzz cut!" Meltdowner shot a green blast of energy straight at Hamazura, it was aimed to the tips of his hair, Hamazura quickly panicked and jumped behind Touma. Falling back on his instinct Touma waved his hand and the blast vanished with a glass like crack. Mugino was stunned to see her attack just stop mid way. There were a few murmurs from people who saw that.

"That's super impossible!" Kinuhata shouted in awe.

With a wush a red haired teleporter appeared.

"It is you." She looked at Touma.

"Musujime?" Accelerator questioned. "What are you doing here?"

"I go to school here." She answered before turning her attention to Touma. "You're the guy who called the ambulance for me that time."

"Yeah." Touma gave a shrug.

"And now you're fighting Number Seven?"

"Yes, he is." Himegami spoke up.

"Oh, hey." Awaki greeted her.

Touma was certainly confused but not as much as the slight glare he got from Himegami. "You know each other?"

"Sort of, I don't know her name."

"Oh, it's Awaki Musujime. I guess you can call me Awaki since you did kinda save me."

"I'm Touma Kamijou." He introduced himself.

"Go~ Kamijou~!" The cheer came out of nowhere distracting everyone.

Everyone turned to see four teenaged girls wearing a white and green cheer leaders tops and a white tennis skirt all while holding pink pom poms. Misaki, Seria, Itsuwa and Konori stood side by side. Misaki had talked to the girls at a stand who were real cheerleaders and hearing she was from Tokiwadai they lent her the key to the locker room and their uniforms. Since the uniforms weren't made for them they ended up being a little tight and showed off their mid drifts.

"He has cheerleaders!" Mikoto growled sparks shooting off her bangs.

"Is that Konori?" Saten smirked.

"What power does this ape hold?!" Kuroko yelled out in amazement. "I should be the only one to get that reaction from Onee-sama!"

"My sister?" Maria quickly pulled out her camera phone seeing her sister in the cheerleading uniform.

Index growled. "Touma!"

"I guess Kamijou will be Kamijou." Aogami Pierce said annoyed. "You magnificent bastard! Sogiita kill him!"

The girls intended to cheer Touma and get the crowd on his side but in the end all the males in his school actively started rooting against him. They didn't think he'd win but now they were outright hopping for his pain. Touma might have said his catch phrase but in all honesty he was distracted by the cheerleaders.

"Touma Kamijou!" Sogiita shouted at the top of his lungs. "Finally we can duel!"

"Huh? What?" Again he was distracted by cheerleaders.

"I've heard rumors about you. You managed to defeat the Number Three Railgun!"

More sparks shot off Mikoto. "Shut up idiot!"

"Then you went on to defeat the strongest esper Accelerator."

Accelerator was surprised at first but then only glared at Sogiita, "Moron." He spoke through gritted teeth. "I'm going to kill him."

"And even I heard a rumor that Level Five Mental Out has no power over you and you in fact won her heart."

"Huh?!" Misaki blushed bright red. She fumbled for a remote in hopes she could erase his mind but found it impossible because his powers.

"And then trained another Level Zero to defeat Number Four Meltdowner."

Mugino looked ready to kill someone. Everyone there looked around at the Level fives but seeing them all upset and angry quickly looked away for their own safety. They all quickly started to gossip about if what Sogiita was saying was true, they've heard rumors about a level zero beating them but could it really be Touma.

Sogiita continued to yell, "That is some guts! I'm impressed! I'm not going to hold back! "

"Kill him." Accelerator whispered to Touma.

All the level fives there had fought Sogiita at some point and they were frustrated by him and his unexplained power. To end the fight they'd either had to get away from him or find some way to knock him out. The fact that he told everyone present that a level zero beat them just made them want to hurt him more.

Yomikawa strolled to the field after taking the bull horn from Aogami and Fukiyose dragging him away to be lectured about having school spirit and rooting for Touma. Yomikawa waved both of the boys over to her and then she shouted out the rules for everyone to hear. "Okay, the match will be three rounds each ten minutes long and with a five minute break in between all of them. There is a medical professional standing by should he be needed." She pointed to the side of the field where a certain frog faced doctor waited. "Should someone get seriously hurt the match will end. Should there be no clear victor by the end of the three rounds the winner will be decided by a panel made of teacher from both schools. I will act as referee and make sure neither one of you fight dirty, so no hitting under the belt or I will knock you out myself." Both of them gulped hearing the certainty in the teacher's words. "When I say start you start and when I say stop you stop. Do I make myself clear?"

Both competitors nodded. The teacher started to walk off the field.

Sogiita looked at Touma and asked, "Hey, what's your power any way?" He just asked out of curiosity and not trying to get an edge for the fight.

Touma answered honestly. "It's my right hand, it can cancel out whatever supernatural thing it come in contact with."

"Oh, it's just your hand. I don't want to hurt you I guess I'll focus on your hand then."

"Thanks." Touma started to feel good about this and that maybe he wouldn't be hurt.

"If you can cancel out my powers then I'll go full force on your hand. I'll use every bit of my guts against you."

"You don't have to-"

"Yes I do!" Sogiita argued. "I have to go full out so do you. We're fighting, a battle of skill and guts. Not giving it my all would be disrespectful to you and me. So I will give everything my guts have to offer and I expect you to do the same."

Touma sighed feeling that speech was his punishment for giving so many speeches. "Such Misfortune."

"Start! The gym teacher yell filled the air and Sogiita was ready to go.

"Amazing punch! The esper yelled out. Suddenly his fist was engulfed by bright red fire like energy, the energy grew larger and larger. Sogiita leapt towards Touma and he swung his fist down. All the crowd saw was an explosion engulfing Touma and they all thought the worst and silence hung on the air. The silence was broke with the sound of glass breaking and the smoke cleared to show that Touma managed to catch the esper's fist with his right hand at the last second. The crowd gasped seeing the sight, the ground around Touma was scourged black except for semi circle area right around Touma.

"That's some guts." Sogiita jumped away from Touma. "You really stopped my attack."

Sogiita didn't wait as he rushed forwards for another attack, he ran at him at incredible speeds so all that could be seen was a blur. It all stopped with the sound of glass shattering and the crowd was witness to seeing Touma's right fist collide with Sogiita's gut. Touma raised his fist out instinct rather than actually being able to see Sogiita and as for the punch landing that was just as far as Touma managed to raise his hand. Sogiita let out a loud hoarse cough before he stumbled backwards. It had been a long time since anyone managed to actually hit him and even with the crowd's shock he was far more surprised. Touma just simply cancelled his power and all that momentum made the punch seem all that stronger.

"That was a good punch." Sogiita coughed out. "A good solid punch. Now you get a turn." Sogiita readied himself and got into a stance. "Hit me."

"What?"

"It's your turn, try and hit me. Let's see how you manage with my shields. Give me everything you have." Sogiita raised his shield and a wall of shimmering light formed before him.

Touma sighed knowing Sogiita would keep on fighting until the very end. Touma readied himself and ran towards the shield and struck it with his right fist. At first nothing happened but then cracks started to form on the transparent light and all at once it shattered into nothing. The punch kept moving forwards hitting Sogiita right in the face. The other level fives were more than a little glad to see him take a hit. Sogiita was not used to fighting without his powers so when it came down to it he was having trouble fighting Touma but he was still trying. Sogiita fell onto the ground and punched the ground yelling at the top of his lungs, "Smash Quake!

The ground shook violently as a wave of power spread from the punch shaking everyone nearby, Touma fell to the ground backwards and his right hand hit the ground canceling out the attack. As the shaking stopped everyone breath a sigh of relief.

"Meteor smash!"

"Huh? Isn't that a move from that game po-" Before Touma could finish the sentence he saw that something as happening above him. It took him a second to realize dozens of balls of light were raining from the sky. Touma jumped to his feet and dodge one smashing into the ground. It hit denting the ground ripping it apart and throwing dust in the air. Touma kept on running as he heard another and another land and explode. Soon the entire field was little more than and exploding mine field. Another one landed feet away and the explosion was enough to toss Touma to the side like he were a rag doll.

"He's the one that beat you." Mugino asked Accelerator as they watch Touma run around the field doing his best to avoid the falling explosives.

"He's holding back." Accelerator told her. "You wouldn't do any better against him if you fought."

Judging how Touma was running away like a headless chicken she couldn't imagine how he could beat any esper even with the power to cancel out powers.

Touma was trying to avoid the explosion, the attacks were passing by too fast for him to get to them and negate them and since they were falling randomly he felt it was best to keep moving. Touma was almost thankful for Fukiyose's training but still he had to stop to catch his breath.

Then as the dust started to clear he started to see what Sogiita had been doing, "Such misfortune."

Sogiita had his arms raised in the air and a huge ball of energy was condensing in between his hands getting bigger and bigger as time went on. If Sogiita were to explain it he would say that the attack was him channeling his own life force into one attack, but those like Index who studied mana and the use of the life force for magic would say that energy wasn't chi, mana or anything like that. The ball was a made of white and blue transparent energy and a black ball hung in the middle of it.

The ball of energy was twice the size of a beach ball when Sogiita spoke, "Like it. I wanted to try this attack but everyone told me it was too dangerous to use. I figure with someone with your ability and guts I think it might be my shot to use it. It takes some time to set up so that's why I gave you that distraction. Pretty clever, huh?"

Touma was terrified of being hit by that. "They told you it was too dangerous!? Don't use it then!"

Sogiita didn't listen and just hurled the massive ball at Touma, he didn't even have a name for it to yell. The attack was too much for him to out run so all he could do was brace himself and hold his right hand. It was like a wave hitting the shore and the energy was ripped apart hung there for a moment beating against Touma before it finally it dissipated with a glass shattering sound. The blast was enough to knock some of the people off their feet. Touma sighed in relief but then saw the black ball hanging in the air. Suddenly the area around that little ball started to swirl around it and with a wush everything started to get dragged in. Air started to swirl around the little ball but it felt like everything close would be dragged in, Touma struggled to hold on as he kept getting dragged into it.

Accelerator yelled out barely holding onto Last Order and using his powers the best he could to counter the effects, "I think the idiot created a black hole or something close to it! Touch it or we all go into it!"

That was all he could suggest, black holes were a great unknown for even those in Academy City and he wasn't even sure that was a black hole all he could do was hope Touma could stop it. Touma didn't catch everything Accelerator told him but he got enough, he'd been holding on the ground as best he could but he simply let go and reached out his arm. He was pulled in quickly and as the winds pushed past him he reached the ball and touched it. Then the ball shattered and Touma was blasted back when it did. It all happened so fast that no one was really sure what happened.

Touma had hit the ground and took a breath, he looked over to Sogiita, "What the hell was that?"

"I don't know. That was the first time that ball was out on it's own. It usually only shows up whenever I tried to make one of those big blasts."

"You didn't even know!? You could have gotten all of us killed?!"

Now Touma wanted to hurt him for being an idiot. The first round ended and Hamazura did a quick patch job on Touma to deal with a few small nicks and cuts. Accelerator went on to explain how Sogiita's attack had a super dense core that ended up exposed and had enough density to warp gravity like a black hole. After that Touma returned to the fight were Sogiita kept pulling strange attacks. Sogiita created a sword of light, shot lasers out of his eyes and created a small super sonic explosion. Still Touma managed to cancel out most the attacks and make his way towards Sogiita and hit him a few times. During the breaks he'd get advice from the others but the fight was at a stand still. Sogiita was useless when it came down to a fist fight and Touma could take advantage over that when he got close but he found it hard to overcome Sogiita's attacks since he had no idea how it worked. When he fought Accelerator he knew enough of his vectors control to only touch him with his right hand but everything thrown by Sogiita was just crazy.

"You have five minutes!" Yomikawa yelled out.

The final round finally came and both spiky haired boys were tired and breathing hard.

"Fine!" Sogiita every bit as eager yelled. "Let's give it our all!"

"Fine with me." Touma replied he held out his right hand.

Sogiita who was sweating heavily, so much so that his headband couldn't keep back all the sweat. His fist started to glow and he ran towards Touma intending to give him everything he had. He ran at him energy flying off him and it gave him a look like meteor as he raced towards Touma. Inches away he quickened his pace and dust got picked up swirling around him. The next thing that happened might have been because they were both tired and sweating but Sogiita missed, he didn't hit the hand he aimed for. The angle of the attack just missed the target and hit Touma right arm right where it connected to the shoulder. Sogiita's eyes widened in shock as he saw the arm blasted off the shoulder and the blood flow out, he could hear Touma scream out in pain. He didn't want to hurt him and it was all just a mistake and he wanted to stop his attack and the power that surrounded his fist but that was when he realized the power vanished without his consent. It all happened in the blink of an eye but he felt something was happening. Suddenly Sogiita was blasted away by some massive force like an explosion ripping outwards. Sogiita hit the ground hard and and as he opened his eyes he spotted a massive cloud of dust covering the field. He tried to crawl to Touma, who seemed knocked out, and tried and help them but he stopped, he gulped as he felt something strange. A pool of blood had started to form beneath Touma and Sogiita saw the blood ripple like something was moving in it, like something was coming out of where Touma's arm used to be.

No one outside the the dust cloud could see anything that was happening but they all held their breath. They all felt the presence of something infinitely bigger than them had just arrived, the feeling that they felt could only be described as what an animal felt when they sensed a predator was hunting them.

Sogiita was someone that wasn't easily scared, some would say that he was so detached from the world that nothing could make him come to his senses but he was certain about what he was seeing. Terror filled his very being as he watched in horror as blood flood out and splashed onto something invisible, the blood fell onto it and it was like blood splashing onto a glass figure giving it shape and form. Soon Sogiita was sure he was seeing a dragon and he wanted to believe he was hallucinating when he the creature's tongue waggle and it's eyes blink. The scales glistened covered in blood and the sharp knife like teeth seemed ready to tear into anything. Suddenly Touma's body rose into the air like strings had been attached onto his body and pulled him along like a puppet. The Invisible Thing snarled and looked up at something in the sky ignoring the frightened esper, it stretched out bitting at the air as if trying to catch something no one else could see. It looked angered as if what it wanted was just out of reach, that was when it let out a terrifying roar. The Invisible Thing trashed around wildly roaring as if cursing God and all of his creation. The glass around the school all shattered and everyone in the crowd had to cover their ears in hopes to block out the noise, the ground shook as it some giant monster was stomping on the ground. The crowd started to scream in fear and many people tried to run away.

Saten and Uiharu held onto Kuroko in terror. Saten begged. "Kuroko please take us away!"

"I c-can't!" Kuroko trembled, as hard as she was trying her powers refused to work. There was an overwhelming presence pushing down at her and she just wanted to run.

"Misaka network lost! Misaka yells panicked. " Last Order held onto Accelerator but he was just having trouble standing up or talking as his connection to the network had been disconnected.

Hamazura held onto Takitsubo who was usually stoic but for once showed her emotion clearly and it was terror. Fremea clung to them like a frighten girl would to her parents believing that they could keep her safe.

Himegami saw the cross that kept her powers at bay shattered but she could feel that her powers were still sealed by something far more powerful.

Komoe and Index held each other in terror, the two small figures huddled together. They didn't say any words but they both silently wished for Touma to be alright. What really unnerved Komoe was her long time friend Yomikawa looked scared too. After everything that Yomikawa had to face Komoe didn't think anything could scare her.

"W-what?" Konori questioned what was happening. Every single fiber of her body was telling her to go. She didn't understand this fear she couldn't help to think, '_why am I so afraid?_'

Itsuwa's own mind was racing trying to understand the situation, her life as magician she had encountered many things but had no idea what could inspire such fear. Part of her wanted to run and another part of her wanted to rush into the dust cloud and find Touma but still the fear kept her from moving.

Misaki and Seria held to one another, the last time they held each other like that they were crying and now they held each other out of fear.

Mikoto wanted to run like some of the other people who had already started to flee the area, she was usually so brave so she couldn't understand why she felt so scared. '_Did Sogiita do something to mess with people's heads?_' Mikoto forced back the tears that threatened to stream out of her eyes, she just wanted to run back to her mother. She shuddered, it felt something was over her back just waiting to sinks it's teeth into her.

Awaki was internally panicking, for the first time in a long time she wanted to use her powers just to teleport away from there but some unseen presence was bearing down on her keeping her powers from working.

Everyone witnessing the events had a different reaction to the events unfolding but maybe none so drastic as Sogiita's. The esper could only stare at the thing coming out Touma's arm and it stopped thrashing about and turned it's cold dead eyes to him. For a second time seemed to stand perfectly still, he could swear the thing was looking deep into his soul. Every thought and every thing in his body screamed that he would die there and for reasons he couldn't use his powers to run away. The dragon head let out one last roar as it opens it's jaw and stretched out towards him.

"Stop!" The voice was loud enough to make people think it cracked the heavens open. A light flashed from the sky and Sogiita looked forwards to Touma who had spoke. "Stop."

It was almost laughable that the boy told that thing to do anything but what was more surprising was that it did. The thing seemingly vanished and a new arm took it's place. Sogiita glanced over to where the original hand been but only caught a glimpse of it dissolving into nothingness.

Sogiita collapsed to the ground just overwhelmed by everything. The dust quickly settled and people began to breath again feeling whatever presence they felt leave. People then witnessed something no one thought they would see: Sogiita unconscious on the ground with Touma standing over him.

The crowd was silent in utter shock and that silence was broken with "KAMIJOU WON!" A certain blue haired idiot yelled out. Quickly Touma was mobbed by people there to congratulate him, it seemed like every single person there chose to ignore the presence they felt to protect their own sanity. Something like that was so unnatural for them that acknowledging it existed threatened the world they believed in.

The an older man walked over parting the crowd. The frog faced doctor spoke up, "Let me see them. I have to make sure they're not too badly hurt." The doctor didn't examine Sogiita first but Touma's shoulder. "Funny, for a second before the dust cloud picked up I could have swore a hit impacted and blood as drawn. Yet it looks good as new." Touma's eyes widened at the doctor's remark. "I must have been mistaken, now you seem well enough help me pick up the other boy and take him to the tent we have set up."

Touma helped get Sogiita up. As everyone moved around the puddle of blood was covered in dust.

The Misaka network had been in a panic for a moment with every single clone lost contact with Last Order and the device that the number one esper had and they were all relieved once the connection restarted. Last Order did her best to bring them all to speed but really she wasn't sure what happened.

In a windowless building upside down in a tank a man with a ethereal look was watching screen. Once again Touma had done something he hadn't expected but it didn't seem anyone had gotten a good glimpse at the Invisible Thing. He thought that Sogiita might have seen something and he decided to keep a closer watch him, if he talked he'd have a doctor tell him he saw things due to shock. Still his machines malfunctioned for a moment and detected something that he wasn't sure of. All he knew was that something was happening.

After patching up Touma's nicks and cuts with few band aids and giving him an ice pack or two the Heaven Canceler felt confident enough to let Touma go.

"Hey." Sogiita who'd just started to come to rested in a cot called out to Touma. "You have some guts. Not sure how or what happened but you stopped that thing." Even though it looked like he was about to past out Sogiita stretched out his fist. "It was a good fight."

"Yeah, you did good too." Touma bumped his fist with his own. Basically despite the fact they beat on each other the pair let in good terms. As Touma left the tent he was once again mobbed by his classmates and a few others.

"Oh Touma~" A certain level five pressed her amble chest against his arm. "I'm so happy you're safe. You won, which is no surprise to me." Touma might have replied but an attractive girl was pressing her body against his and just happened to be wearing a cheerleaders outfit. "Oh, I'm I distracting you?" Misaki said in a teasing tone. "Here I was going to take you and your friends to eat, on me off course, to celebrate."

Touma's classmates cheered and Aogami pulled him to the side, "Kamijou, she's a rich ojou. large breasted, blonde and doesn't mind wearing cheerleader uniforms for you... marry her... marry her and never let her go."

Touma couldn't even remember the last time he heard Aogami talk that serious. Soon enough they were all heading to a restaurant after the girls changed back into their regular clothes.

What none of them notice was that Satomi walking onto the field. The machines had all failed to figure out what Sogiita's power really did... again but it also failed to detect any sort of AIM field from Touma. Satomi happened to specialize in weapons mainly weapons to use on espers and she was very interested in Touma's right hand.

"So it's not an esper ability but it still managed to beat Sogiita. Hm?" Satomi spoke to herself. She wasn't sure what happened at the end but she was very eager to find out more about Touma's right hand.

The group which consisted mostly of Touma's class and a few tag along who only showed up in the first place to see Touma in the fight. Misaki did agree to pay for it all but it wasn't entirely out of the goodness of her own heart. Misaki wanted to get closer to Touma and what better way than through his stomach and through his friends at the same time. They ended up going to a restaurant that the class had gone earlier in the year. As they all sat down on the long table Misaki and Seri made sure to sit next to the level zero and Itsuwa and Konori had the same thought. Index was delighted to be allowed to eat to heart content though Misaki worried how much just the girl's meal would cost her.

"She has quite an appetite." Mental Out commented imagining the small nun could dent her savings.

"Yeah she does." Touma admitted, he thought about something. "Misaki, whatever you do never look into Index's mind." He whispered to her. "It would be dangerous so don't ever do it." Touma knew he couldn't go into why not but he hoped she'd listen to him.

"I promise." Misaki gave him a soft smile.

"So," Aogami spoke up. "You seem rather close, how long have you known each other?"

Touma left it for Misaki to answer as he had no recollection of it. "Well," the blonde esper let her gloved hand rest on her cheek. "You could say that we've been old friends, since childhood really." Her tone grew somewhat melancholy. "These eyes, they've been like this since I was born. Children use to make fun of me for having these eyes and some of the meaner children threw rocks at me. I didn't have a lot of friends, no one wanted to be friends with a freak. One day I was at a park when some bullies were throwing rocks at me, I remember I was hiding by a tree crying trying to hide and then Touma came in. He was just little himself but he fought off the other children for throwing rocks at me and he found me. He promised to be my friend and he treated by bruises and cuts and even bought me a parfait so I would smile again."

Seria couldn't help but think that was what caused Misaki to be so manipulative, she had no control over her life as a child and now sought to control everything she could.

"Yes, I have a similar story, we even met around the same time." Seria sighed, " I was walking down the wrong part of the city and ran into some thugs and without hesitation Touma ran to my rescue."

"Sounds like Kamijou." His entire class spoke at once.

Mikoto didn't believe the story or refused to believe it. "So you expect us to believe that you've known him for years?"

"Oh," Misaki perked up. "I was looking through some photo albums a few days and found this." She pulled out a small photo of the trio as children wearing birthday hats and looking at a birthday cake with candles over it. "This was his birthday. We spent the day together playing games."

"Oh, thats so sweet." Uiharu smiled at the picture not realizing that Mikoto had entered the blue screen of death.

Seria gulped and told them, "Excuse me for a moment." She got up and left the tables.

"So I guess that wasn't a love letter?" Fukiyose was reminded of a note that Seria had given her to deliver to Touma. "It must have just been a note to friend."

The others continued to eat their meal together in celebration to the unlikely win of Touma's.

Seria saw her sister wave her over and went to see what the yellow clad maid wanted. "Maria, what do you want?"

"Are you trying to get closer to Kamijou?"

A red blush spread across her cheeks, "Why would you ask?"

"You are clinging to him."

"I'm not clinging. Beside ... are you jealous?"

Maria pouted. "No, I might have a minor crush on him but I've known what it feels to truly fall in love with someone... and to lose that love. That's a terrible pain and I would never want you to experience that so I wish you all the luck in the world with Kamijou. " Maria looked at her sister with a warm look of kindness and heart felt love. "Though if it doesn't work between you to I might think of asking him out."

"You little!" Seria burst out. "I will go full soap opera on you and-"

Maria pulled out her cell phone and showed her a picture, "Do anything and this picture of you in a cheerleading uniform will be emailed to everyone you know and posted all over the internet." Seria choked back the words as glared at her little sister, she really didn't want that picture getting out and cursed Misaki for convincing her to wear that outfit. "Though if it does work with Kamijou and you want to dress up for him I know where you can get some alluring maid outfits."

Seria grit her teeth, she enjoyed teasing people but she certainly didn't enjoy being teased by her own sister.

The rest of the meal went rather pleasantly, Index got to eat all she wanted, Itsuwa got to learn more about Touma and those he was close to and Seria and Misaki just were happy to spend some times with Touma. Everyone started to go home.

Awaki walked besides Himegami as they left, "You like him, don't you?"

The usually stoic girl started to blush madly, "Huh..."

"Maybe I can help you with him." The red haired teleporter smirked.

"Is she going to be alright?" Saten asked as her and her friends walked and Mikoto just stumbled along like a zombie.

"Oh, I'm sure Onee-sama is just tired." Kuroko was certain that wasn't the trouble and she silently cursed Touma.

Konori stayed behind to speak to Touma, "Touma?" The girl blushed like a girl in love for reasons so obvious I won't bother to hide them. "I was wondering if you were busy tomorrow. Maybe we could do something together."

"Oh, if you want to do something together I'm free." Touma smiled not knowing what she really meant.

So with that more trouble started to crawl towards the unfortunate boy. Soon the girls would be going into their own personal battles.

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**Authors Notes: Okay, another chapter done. Guys tell me what you think. Konori and Touma are going on a sorta date and well misfortune will follow. This was kinda long and took me a while to write, my computer crashed and i lost half of it. Anyway I hoped you guys liked it.**


	6. Chapter 6: Mall Rats

**Twist of Fate**

**Disclaimer: I do not own a certain magical index, it's characters or it's elements.**

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Chapter 6: Mall Rats

_Touma found himself laying down on a bed of soft pillows. The air was rich with sweet smells. As he opened his eyes he found several girls around him wearing cute skimpy harem girl outfits. Most of the girls were lounging around but the girls right next to him caught his attention._

_He found his head resting on Konori's lap as she ran her finger through his hair. Next to his left side was a sleeping Seria cuddled up next to him just resting her head on his chest. On his right side was Misaki pressing her body against his, her gloved hand across on his chest drawing circles with her finger. On the side was Himegami giving him a warm smile as she gently fanned him. On the other side was Itsuwa gently feeding him grapes._

"Touma!" A voice snapped him out of his dream. "Touma wake up! I'm hungry!" The nun yelled at him through the bathroom door.

"I'll be out in a minute." Touma woke up in the bath tube he slept in to give the bed to his free loader. The last bits of the dream still lingered in his head. Touma slapped his own face, "Stop thinking about your friends like that!" Touma slapped himself again. "I guess they've been on my mind lately and they got mixed up in my teenaged fantasies." Touma sighed, "Maybe I just need to get me a girlfriend so I can get those kind of thoughts out my head."

For reasons they didn't understand girls all over the world felt hopeful and anxious for no apparent reason.

Aogami Pierce woke up in his bed shuddering in fear, "Something just happened."

On a cruise with her husband Shiina Kamijou felt a sense of worry for her son. She decided she'd have to call him soon to check up on him.

Touma made Index breakfast and quickly went off to go see Konori as they had agreed. Index didn't like the idea of staying behind but she ended up agreeing when Touma reminded her about Konori being a judgement officer. So in the end the little nun stayed behind to watch her favorite magic girl.

Himegami woke up to find a package waiting for her at her dorm room door. The Anglican church had given her a number for her to contact them should something happen and after the fight she called them to let them know the walking church of hers was destroyed. She didn't expect them to send a new one by morning, neither the church nor Academy City wanted her to accidentally draw vampires so her package was delivered very fast. After her breakfast she decided to head out as Awaki promised to meet up with her and help her find a way to win Touma's attention.

In their dorm room Mikoto and Kuroko were getting ready to go out and enjoy the day with their friends.

As the level four teleporter brushed her hair she asked, "So what do you want to do today?"

"I don't know. Maybe go to the Underground Mall?"

"Oh, "Kuroko cooed, "this isn't about what we overheard last night, is it? About the Queen talking to that dark haired girl about meeting at that Underground Mall?"

"No, of course not. I just don't trust her and don't want her to manipulate any one."

"You mean that gentlemen? Though I do love that you are willing to help anyone even that despicable ape I'm not sure you should get involved."

"What? Why"

"They do seem to have a history. As much as it pains me to admit if they had a history together she has every right to spend time with him."

"It's not that!" Mikoto insisted, she couldn't say it out loud that she knew that Touma had lost his memories and the Mental Out could just be using him for her benefit. Mikoto internally justified that those pictures The Queen showed off were forgeries to proved her point.

"You know this reminds me of something I heard..." Kuroko retold the rumor she heard sometime ago.

Mikoto was shocked as she knew things Kuroko didn't which painted a picture. During late July Mikoto was looking for Touma and stumbled to a fire at a dorm and she didn't know it then but that was his dorm. She couldn't find Touma for a number of days to challenge him again but she did hear rumors of strange things happening around the city especially about a huge light that shot up into the sky. What worried her now was that it was the same day that Tree Diagram was shot down. If that was the same day Misaka was called out then it could be true. If something could cause someone's memory to vanish then that would explain why Mental Out was called. In the end the conclusion meant that if the story was real Misaki could have known Touma before he lost his memories. Mikoto still didn't know enough of what caused his memories loss and how even Mental Out was unable to help.

Touma met Konori at Underground Mall. Konori had gotten a cute outfit together thanks to her roommate. As supportive as her roommate was she kept on teasing her even reminder she would be out until late so their apartment would be free is she and Touma wanted some alone time.

"Hey Konori!" Touma called out to her as he walked over.

"Touma." Konori couldn't help but smile.

"So is there something you want to do today?"

"How about we play some games at an arcade and then maybe we get something to eat?"

"That sounds like a plan." Touma smiled back.

They headed off towards a nearby arcade that Touma was familiar with.

Back at the apartment Index was enjoying her shows when there was a knock on the door, the nun jumped up and answered it, "Who is it?"

"Oh," When she opened the was greeted with Itsuwa's smiling face. "Index? Hello."

"Ah, Itsuwa!"

"I wanted to see if Kamijou was here."

"No." Index grumbled. "Touma said a friend invited him out."

"Oh." She said clearly disappointed. "I need to buy a new frying pan for my dorm and if you'd like you can come with me to the store. Then I can come back here and make you something eat."

"You're going to cook?!" Index said overjoyed. "I'd love to!"

Index planned on making it a quick trip so she could eat all the sooner. Itsuwa wanted an excuse to be there when Touma returned. The scheming between all the girls was just getting started.

"Why are you dressed like a shrine maiden?" Awaki asked Himegami when she arrived at the mall.

Himegami looked down at her shrine maiden outfit that she wore when not in her uniform. On the other hand Awaki was wearing her usual skirt with a jacket as a cape and she had bandages wrapped around her chest. They both made unusual pair.

"How don't you already have his attention if you dress like this?" Awaki made a good point. "Maybe we should try and find you some more normal clothes?"

"... maybe." Himegami said quietly. She knew she couldn't stand out in a group that included someone like Komoe so she thought something new might help.

Meanwhile they didn't notice as Misaki and Seria arrived at the mall.

The dark haired girl arrived and gave a sigh, "So what did you want to meet here for?"

"I thought we should get Touma something, to start off everything over again. And with Christmas just around the corner it might be a good idea to start thinking about getting him something."

"You do realize it's traditional for couple to exchange gifts?" Well, in Japan it's typical for couples and family to exchange gifts really.

"Well, we might be more than friends by then."

Seria glared at her. "What do you mean by that?"

Misaki chuckled. "Don't be angry, I'm kidding. Maybe. Still getting him something would be good, especially if it was from both of us. I don't want to make the same mistake again."

Seria grew quiet and just nodded in agreement. They headed into the mall to look for something for someone they both cared about.

"Such Misfortune." Touma let out at the arcade as he lost another game.

"You really are unlucky." Konori pointed out.

Every game that required a bit of luck Touma lost and lost badly.

"I did alright on the shooting games and racing games."

"Yeah, I just did a lot better." It had been a while since she could just had fun like this. "Let's go get something to eat."

As they left the arcade they didn't see that Mikoto and the others arrive.

"So what do you want to play first?" Saten asked. "Huh? Wasn't Misaka right here?"

"Onee-sama?!" Kuroko shocked to see that the electro master had vanished.

The reason for why she ran off without saying a word was that she had spotted someone and was chasing after them.

"I know there is a store near here." Itsuwa lead Index along past the arcade.

Soon they found themselves in the store that sold everything they might want for the kitchen. But as if dictated by the fates three story lines collided. Index quickly got separated from Itsuwa as they looked through shelves for the frying pan.

That was when it started, Index saw through the shelf two young women talking.

"Do you really think kitchen supplies are the best thing to get him?" Seria told the other girl.

"I don't know. He is a splendid cook and I'm sure he could appreciate some proper cooking tools." Misaki said with her ever cheerful tone.

"Why?" Seria leaned on a shelf and asked. "Why is this so important to you?"

Misaki looked down to the floor, "Do you remember how things were the last time he spoke to us? We were arguing and he got so upset with us. He yelled at us and then just left and didn't speak to us for a while. Then he finally called me and just seeing his name come up on my phone made my heart flutter. Then he told me about this nun that needed his helped and he wanted me to help. I was so happy to hear from him, so happy that for once he asked for help, I raced there as quickly as I could but I was forced to call you to get your driver to take us. Then when we got there..."

Seria continued to tell the story. "The driver panicked when a light shot up into the sky. We were too late. Someone called an ambulance and by the time we found him he was in the hospital."

"We'd seen him get hurt so many times before, but it never gets easier does it? That time was the worst. Curious I used mental out to glimpse into his mind, just to find out what happened and... his mind was empty. His every memory and thought was gone. I had never seen anything like that, I've never experienced anything like that. It was overwhelming, I just had to leave."

"And you found that nun sleeping on a bench in the hospital. I knew in Academy city there couldn't be two random nuns, it had to be the one that Touma was trying to save."

"Yes, some how her memory was to be erased but instead Touma took on her burden and paid the price. I wondered why Touma had to pay, we had to lose him. I wanted nothing more than tear her mind apart." Tears started to form in Misaki's eyes. "I wanted to erase her every memory, every thought, I wanted to tear her mind apart and leave her nothing but vegetable. I wanted to do it again when I saw her eating there yesterday but I put on a smile for Touma's sake."

"You still couldn't, could you?"

"No, I could not force myself. Touma would never want me to hurt someone like that. And if I were to erase her memory than it would make his sacrifice for naught." She wiped her tears away with a handkerchief from her bag. "After that we went to your apartment and cried for days. That's when we decided to do what we could to protect Touma. We watched him from a distance trying to keep whatever misfortune we could away from him. Still we failed and he was forced to fight the Railgun, defeat the number one and even get involved with World War Three. We weren't able to help him and I still want to apologize for getting him angry. We upset him so much and we never got a chance to say we were sorry. I just thought that if we got something for him in a small way we could apologize, we lost him...I don't even remember what the fight that upset him was about."

"I do." Seria said coldly. "We might have argued, I might have called you the name you hate, you might have tried to control my mind and we might have upset Touma but the reason is the same reason we always bicker."

"I suppose it's true."

"We both love Touma. We've loved him for such a long time and we try to keep it civil in front of him but sometimes we can't help but get jealous when one of us gets closer to him and we fight."

"We can't do that this time. We have a fresh start. So we can't fight and I don't want to lose him again. And despite everything... you're one the few people I'd call a friend." Misaki grumbled.

"Isn't that just sad?" Seria sighed, "And it doesn't help that you're one of my friends too. Fine, if we're going to get him something we should find him something that he'd actually want or need."

"Oh," Misaki grinned. "are you suggesting we get him risque pictures of us in sexy lingerie for him to use in any naughty way a growing young man might be able to think off."

Seria just let her jaw drop, "That is not what I was thinking at all!"

With that the pair of girls walked out of the aisle and continued to search for a gift for Touma. What they didn't realize was that was that they were being listened to. Index heard them from just one aisle over and through the cracks between items she watched them recount their least pleasant memories. Index did remember those events enough to know what moment they were talking about. She tried not to think about it but she was at fault for his lost memory. Touma might have forgave her but she never once thought about what him loosing his memories would do to others. The little nun felt all that guilt weigh down on her.

"Index!" Itsuwa called out walking towards her. " I found the frying pan."

Index wiped her tears away on her sleeves and put on a smile, "Good, let's go home." Index didn't want to let on that something was hurting her and she wanted to go home.

On the aisle opposite to her the electro master was standing there in silence. She had spotted Misaki and chased after her making sure she didn't do anything and stumbled onto their conversation. She was shocked, she now knew for certain that Misaki loved Touma and she knew about his memory lost since the start. Her heart ached at the realization. She didn't want to believe it but the tone those two had was honest and pained, they didn't say it because they wanted to but because they were just trying ease the pain by talking about it.

Elsewhere her friends were entering a restaurant at the underground mall. Kuroko was in a state of near panic. "My Onee-sama might be in danger."

"I'm sure she's fine." Saten told her. "I'm sure she just saw something she wanted and got distracted. Like a new Gekota toy."

"Oh, look!" Uiharu ran across to a table. "Kamijou and Konori!" The other other girls turned their attention to where the pair sat across from each other. Uiharu used to be a little frighten by Touma but over time she'd calmed down. It did help that Konori talked him up.

"Oh, are you two on a date?" Saten couldn't help but ask.

"A date?" Touma asked confused. "No, why? We're just friends hanging out."

Konori's face twitched hearing that, she would admit that she didn't openly ask for a date but she thought Touma would get the idea by then. She underestimated how dense he could be. She sighed and just smiled, she decided she'd just have to try to make her feelings clearer.

"Oh, do you mind if we join you?" Saten didn't hesitate to sit next to Touma.

"No, go ahead." He flinched finding her so close so quickly.

Uiharu sat down next to Konori and Kuroko sat down a little less enthusiastic.

"You know..." Konori started off. "Touma I just had a thought, Uiharu is suspended from Judgement duty for another week and we could use some help, what do you think about joining judgement?"

Kuroko choked on her saliva. "What?"

"What?" Touma also said.

Konori started to explain, "Well, I've already seen you deal with criminal espers. You're capable and strong, and your ability to cancel out powers could be helpful."

"You can't be serious?!" Kuroko yelled getting the attention of some of the customers who just decided to ignore her.

"Why not? You saw what he can do."

"Yes, I've seen it." Kuroko sighed annoyed, "He saved me once too..." She started to tell them the story about how she fought a teleporter and nearly died if it wasn't for Touma.

"Wait, are you saying..."Uiharu trying to think up the right words. "That he punched a building through the eleventh dimension and back to this dimension?"

"Don't try to make him sound more impressive." Kuroko glared at her friend.

"It's pretty impressive." Saten admitted. "He comes out of no where and saves you! He even carried you like a princess!"

Kuroko switched the aim of her glare, she wanted to much to kick Touma in the back of the head like that time she saw him dance with Mikoto.

The next thing she heard was the sound of glass shattering and something striking her on the head with enough force to make her head go down onto the table. Her head was ringing but she could hear people shouting.

Someone had ran through the glass window of the restaurant that was right behind them and kicked the teleporter.

"You!" Konori acted quickly and grabbed the guy's leg. "He has speed boost! You can't let him move!" The guy quickly broke free and with a blur speed moved several feet away.

"What?!" Saten shouted out.

Konori started giving out orders. "Saten help get Kuroko out of here, she looks hurt. Uiharu start getting people out of here." Both girls quickly nodded.

"What was that?" Touma asked her.

"That's Speed Boost, it lets the user move super quick but only in short burst and they have to take a three second pause between uses. He's one of those guys we stopped when I met you."

Saten was trying to get out of the way with the other through the door when the door suddenly develop a thick coat of ice on it. That was when she noticed that a women with long wild black hair was climbing through the broken window and ice spread out from her. Following her was the fire esper they both had already met.

"What?! It's looks like most of the gang is here?" Konori pointed out.

Suddenly the Speed Boost Esper slammed Touma into the wall. The second he hit the wall Touma groaned in pain only to find a beam of blue light hitting him and slowly forming ice over him. The ice seemingly climbed over his from keeping from moving.

"Touma!" Konori yelled out.

The glass shatter with a strange sound as it came into contact with Touma's hand but still, "That's cold." Touma shuddered as the ice broke off.

Touma took a second to look at the three espers, something seemed wrong about them. The fire esper couldn't shut up last time but he was silent this time and his eyes lacked that drive he had. He would have thought about it more but was slammed again by the Speed Boost esper. Touma wasn't letting him go as he grabbed him with his hand to stop him from moving so fast. Konori was quick to action, she grabbed the fast esper and this time slamming him into a table. The attack seemed to daze the esper so Konori didn't waste the moment and pined him down to keep him from moving. Touma in the mean time raced to the Ice esper as she continued her attack on him, the room quickly grew colder and colder with each blast she sent his way. Touma just negated each attack and walked closer and closer to her. Soon he was in arms distance but her attacks stopped with a orange flash and she collapsed into Touma's open arms. With a sound of shattering Touma realized what happened, her back was badly burnt from a flame attack he negated without thinking. He realized that only a second before he had to negate another fire ball thrown at him.

"Why did you do that?!" Touma yelled, outraged by the events. "She's you're friend, isn't she? She's apart of your group! Why did you attack her?"

The fire esper didn't answer he just looked at him as a ball of fire grew in his hands, he seemed eerily calm as he readied his attack. It looked like he had decided to burn the restaurant down with everyone in it. With a bang like a gun being fired flames shot out right towards Touma but they never moved past him. The young man held out his hand like a shield protecting everyone in the restaurant. The girls looked at Touma and the scene that unfolded before them and were reminded of a brave knight protecting a damsel from a terrible dragon out a child's fairy tale. Touma carefully put down the ice esper on the ground before he took a step forward. Then another. There was a determined look in his eyes that sent shivers down the spine of those who saw him force his way forwards. He ran forwards and the flames ripped apart into nothingness like he was cutting his path clear with his own hand. He leapt onto the table and towards the fire esper by the broken window before finally swinging his fist. His first tore through the air finally to collide with the esper's jaw and sending him flying out through the window and to mall outside.

Everyone started to sigh in relief seeing that they were now safe. Saten and Uiharu checked on Kuroko who was awake but out of it. Konori found out the Speed Boost esper was unconscious. She also noticed a metal collar around his neck that looked shatter from when she attacked him. She would check on the other two to find them in similar states and wearing the same collars.

"Touma, are you okay?" She called out and got no reply. A moment later her cell phone began to ring. "Hello?"

"Konori? Are you okay?" Touma spoke from the other end sounding out of breath.

"Yeah, uh... where are you?"

"Oh, sorry I had to leave. I don't want to deal with Anti-Skill. My teacher always yells at me when I make trouble for them."

"Okay, don't worry about it. I'll handle everything." Konori couldn't help but smile, there was just something about him. "Let's talk later. Think about what I said, I think you'd be a great help to Judgement."

Soon Anti-Skill and an ambulance came to settle things. Kuroko was checked out and they said she was fine but she should take it easy. Touma arrived home to find Itsuwa making them dinner and that was when he got a phone call.

"Hamazura?" He asked as he check the caller id.

"Hey boss." The former leader of Skill-Out greeted him. "I was at the mall earlier and they were having a lottery for this new bath house that opened up. Most of the prizes were free passes and I won a large set of them. I have an extra one and since I got you into that fight with the level five and your probably a little sore I figured you could use it."

"A nice bath like that sounds good actually."

Touma agreed to meet him at the bathhouse the following day. When he told Index and Itsuwa about it, they decided to tag along. Apparently while they were shopping they entered the lottery and won two passes.

The lottery prizes were super easy to win variety of bath house passes since they were trying to get people interested in the new bath house. The winners included a pair of girls who went clothes shopping, a pair judgement officers and a blonde esper along with her friend.

As night settled onto the city a women in a long red coat spied on Touma's dorm. "The espers I sent didn't do much. That just makes you all the more interesting." Satomi whispered to herself as she finished her plans for tomorrow.

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**Authors Notes: Here you okay another chapter. Someone asked me who was going to be in Touma's harem and I'm not going to answer that as there are some surprises ahead. I will say I'm limiting it to 12, it has to do with the story. Feel free to try and guess the twelve. Anyway I heard that Cendrillion and Thor are stuck in Academy City, is that true? Did I miss read something? Anyway fell free to leave a review telling me what you think, what you like what you didn't. Also let me know if any of you guys are reading any of my other stories, I'm just curious to see how much cross over is happening.**


	7. Chapter 7: Bath Time

**Twist of Fate**

**Disclaimer: I do not own a certain magical index, it's characters or it's elements.**

* * *

Chapter 7: Bath Time

Academy City glowed with the orange light of the sunset as a loud sound streak across the streets.

"I can't believe you got a motorcycle." Touma said as he held onto Itsuwa.

"Yeah." Itsuwa blushed feeling his grip around her waist get tighter. "The rest of the Amakusa gave it to me as a going away gift. They said it would come in handy being alone in the city."

"Whoo!" Index shouted in side car besides them. Index acted like it was a roller coaster instead of a bike speeding past cars on a busy street. Index even waved her arms in the air.

Touma in the meantime tried not to think of any of this as a good luck because misfortune would soon to follow if it was. He tried to think that it was just Hamazura trying to rid himself of some guilt for setting Sogiita on him. Soon enough the motorcycle arrived at the bathhouse. They parked the bike nearby and disembarked.

"Hey boss." Hamazura greeted them at the entrance.

"Hey." Touma greeted him. "You remember Index and this is Itsuwa."

"Nice to meet you." Hamazura smiled at her. "So she's your girlfriend?"

"Huh?!" Was the generally what the trio yelled.

"No, she's just a friend." Touma explained though that didn't stop Itsuwa from blushing like it was going out of style.

Soon enough they headed inside, the girls went to one area and the boys to another. After putting their clothes in the lockers they headed into the baths.

Touma and Hamazura chatted a bit as they walked into the bath room. "Did you wait long?" Touma asked his fellow level zero.

"Not really. " Hamazura told him. "My girlfriend and our friends came too. They went in just before me, they're girls so I couldn't go in with them anyway."

They walked into the large shared bath and let out a sigh as they sunk into the hot water.

"Hey it's you!" Sogiita shouted.

"Huh?" Touma was more than a little surprised to see the esper there. "What are you doing here?"

"That frog faced doctor gave me a pass here. He said it would ease my muscles and help my bruises to have a long bath."

"Oh, sorry about that." Touma knew he was the one responsible for those very bruises.

"Don't worry. I challenged you to the fight. I gotta hone up to my guts to be a match for yours."

The three of them settles into the water hoping to enjoy a nice and relaxing stay. There were other people there enjoying their passes but this small group didn't really take them in, they simple talked about everyday things. And they did the typical guy thing of not looking down to avoid making things weird between anyone. Sorry to any ladies who thought some yaoi would happen but that's what really what guys do in this sort of of places.

In the women's locker room a group of friends gathered in to make use of the baths since they too won some passes. It should be noted that just about everyone who went to the lottery stand would have won some passes. If Touma had tried the lottery he would been the one out of a hundred visitors who would have gotten a pack of tissues with the bath house logo on it though.

Anyway Mikoto found herself being dragged into the bath house by Kuroko because she left the group without saying anything.

"Come along Onee-sama." The teleporter literally dragged Mikoto along.

Kuroko wasn't sure why but her roommate seemed less energetic than usual.

Mikoto sighed, "Are you sure this is what you should be doing? You were hurt."

"Don't worry about it." Kuroko simply waved her off. "The doctor said I should just take it easy. A nice visit to a bath house with my beloved onee-sama would do more to heal me than a week into the hospital." Kuroko quickly jumped onto her roommate and embraced her.

"Kuroko, don't make me shock you near water or else you might not survive." Mikoto said with a straight face knowing what might be in that teleporter's mind.

"I'll be sure to remember that." Kuroko forced a grin despite the threat.

If Mikoto let out sparks near water, even my accident, it could certainly be dangerous.

"So what about those collars?" Uiharu's voice rang out.

"Anti-Skill didn't find anything about them. From what they could tell it was some sort of experimental collars used to override a person's mind. It seems to work by feeding their senses false information but it also kept the higher thinking parts of their brains from working." Konori explained to the younger girl. "They were actually lucky that the collars got broken when they did, any longer and they would have been risking serious damage to their bodies."

"So someone put those collars on them? Saten chimed in as she put her clothes in one of the lockers provide by the bath house.

"It seems that way. They're still unconscious so we can't question them. We still don't know how they got out of their cells."

"It looks like someone got them out and then put those collars on them." Uiharu summed it all down. "Maybe you can get a telepath to look into their minds and see the last thing they saw."

"I already tried that. The telepath couldn't get anything. They might had those collars put on them when they were asleep."

So the terrifying thought of being removed from your bed and then having someone take control of your body was unsettling enough so Konori changed the subject. "Kuroko! Mikoto! You made it." Konori took out her glasses and put them in the locker along with her other items. The three girls all had a towel wrapped around them already.

"Yes, we did." The pig tailed girl smiled at her sempai. "You go ahead, we'll change out of our clothes and meet you inside."

The three girls agreed and walked into the bath room. There was a large bath almost the size of a pool, the water was dyed a peach pink and it had the sweet smell of peaches too. The room was refreshingly warm to the girls coming in from the chilly autumn air. The girls didn't hesitate to get into the warm and inviting water. As the slipped into the warm water they let out a pleased sighs.

"Maybe a pass for a year would make a good gift?" A voice spoke out.

"What?" Konori looked over to a few feet away where Seria who said those words to Misaki sat. "It's you again."

"That's a coincidence." Seria said surprised to see Konori again. One would think these weren't a coincidence.

Seria was smart, smart enough to realize that Konori was yet another rival in love.

"Was this planned out?" Saten questioned them. "Her too?"

Saten pointed to another area of the bath to were a silver haired girl was next to a familiar purple haired girl. Sensing they were being watched both girls turned their heads. Index shrunk done behind Itsuwa seeing the blonde buxom beauty and the dark haired girl besides her. Itsuwa just stared in confusion.

"All of Kamijou's cheerleaders in one place." Saten started to tease playfully.

"This wasn't planned." Itsuwa said in a vain attempt to stop the implications.

"Oh, so what do you really think about it Kamijou?" Saten asked. "I mean none of you seemed to have any trouble getting in those skimpy cheerleader uniforms for him."

"They weren't that skimpy!" Itsuwa shouted in attempt to get them to believe her or more accurately trying to convince herself that wasn't that skimpy. They were rather skimpy.

"Keep down over there!" Another young woman yelled from the other side of the large tub. "W'ere trying to relax over here!"

The other's tried to stay quiet after that outburst but Itsuwa's face remained beet red. Though the other girls weren't any less red themselves. An uneasy silence fell on the group but that was when Mikoto and Kuroko. Kuroko had no problem discarding her towel and slipping into the water but Mikoto was different. Mikoto got in the water with her towel still on since she was a little shy in these kind of situations.

The electromaster's eye twitched. "What are you doing here?!" Mikoto pointed an accusing finger at the Queen.

"I'm taking a bath, what does it look like I'm doing?" Misaki coyly replied.

"I said be quiet!" The same girl as before made her way over. "This is a public place and you should stay quiet!"

Mikoto's eyes widened. "You?!"

It was the one and only Meltdowner.

"You essentially made Mugino angry." A small blonde haired girl swam besides her. Fremea's wet hair was soaked and cascaded down her body. The usual fluffy hair looked more like damp towels just hanging down.

"Oh, you are super in trouble." Noted the ever super Kinuhata.

Besides her floating like a dead body in a lake was Takitsubo. Takitsubo was so motionless and faced down in the water that Mikoto started to get worried.

"Huh?" Mikoto pointed cringing at very words she was about to say, "Is she alright? She kinda looks like she drowned."

"I'm fine." Takitsubo raised her head, her face was devoid of any noticeable emotions.

"Oh, Number Four how good it is to see you again." Misaki greeted her in a polite manner.

"Shut it Mental Out." She spat back at her. It didn't seem like any of the level fives liked each other. "Now Railgun can you and your friends stay quiet so we can relax?"

Mikoto glared at the other girl, after the incident with her sisters she didn't exactly trust ITEM.

"Don't fight here." A quiet voice spoke up.

They all turned around to a girl with long black hair sitting there in the water.

"What?!" No one there seemed to notice her at all until that moment.

"Himegami! How long have you been here?!" Index shouted at her friend.

"We've been here since before anyone you arrived." Himegami turned to the red haired girl next to her.

"You!" Kuroko developed dark aura around her when she noticed the familiar girl.

Awaki looked around confused, "That is weird. No one really notices you." She looked at Himegami. "Even me just sitting next to you makes me unnoticed. What is your power?"

"Apparently it's being unnoticed and killing vampires."

Awaki gave her confused look after hearing that strange comment.

"What are you doing here?!" Kuroko glared at the other teleporter.

As the argument started Mikoto noticed that many of the people she couldn't stand had gathered there. Mugino the Meltdowner that nearly killed her, Mental Out who frustrated her, Index who she argued with almost every time they ran into one another and Awaki who tried to rebuilt Tree Digram. As she looked around she started to notice something else, that almost everyone there beat her when it came to bust size and that included some of the girls that were younger than her. Mikoto lost the will to fight and sunk into the water.

"What's wrong with short hair?" Index looked at her afraid she would drown.

"Maybe we should just go." Himegami suggested to Awaki.

"Yeah, we've soaked long enough."

"Onee-sama! I will save you with the kiss of life!" The teleporter proclaimed.

"Kuroko! Don't do that!" Konori tried to stop her. "That's not where you give her CPR!"

"I said be quiet!" Mugino shouted again.

"Don't fire in the water. It could be super dangerous!" Kinuhata warned her.

After changing back into their clothes Himegami and Awaki stepped outside of the baths deciding to go home.

"Hey." They didn't expect to find Touma and two other men. They didn't seem to be causing any trouble just enjoying by the cool evening air. Night had fallen but lights kept the area around the bath house with enough light. "Hey Himegami and Awaki."

She might not have stood out but there were times that he actually saw her, and he would talk to her and give Himegami that smile that made her heart race.

Himegami was silent until Awaki gave her a nudge in her ribs. "Are you waiting for Index?"

"Yeah." Touma smiled at her.

For a girl who went by so unnoticed by everyone to be spoken to by the guy she liked was what she wanted the most. After watching so many die because of her and having to relive their screams and death rattles in her nightmares most would say the girl deserved such humbles joys.

Still the world is not to kind to let such joys last forever.

The next thing they heard was the sound of metal crashing onto cement and the cement cracking. The group then saw three large Powered Suits coming off a large black track in the nearby parking lot. In a city with technology so advance such sights were not particularly unique but that still stood out. They were tall and silver, without a bit of paint on them, they looked fresh out of the factory.

Then all three suit turned to a certain unfortunate boy and then they ran towards him.

"Touma!" Himegami shouted her heart suddenly filled with fear.

The suits moved so fast that that in a blink of the eye it was inches away from Touma.

"Amazing Punch!" Sogiita roared as he enflamed fist suddenly struck the suit closes to Touma and knocked it away and into a car. The other two suits stopped and moved back to access the situation.

Sogiita stood before Touma taking a deep breath. "So today is the day, the robots finally decide to take over the human race! Me and my guts will stop you gutless machines!"

What movie is has he been watching.

"Those are powered suits, you moron!" Awaki yelled at him. "There are pilots in them."

Hamazura who had seen the suits before went to check on the suit that was now embedded into a car. He had hoped to removed the pilot before he could get up. Sogiita's punch was enough to knock the head piece off the new suit and as he looked inside he was overcome with shock.

"I don't think anyone is in it." Hamazura said pulling out some wires. "There are wire and machines in where the pilot should be. I think someone is using a remote control." Realizing that himself he started to tear apart the insides to make sure it would get up.

One of the two remaining suits raised it's arm and pointed it's side gun right at Touma. The air grew hot as a bright red laser shot out straight at Touma. Sogiita stood before him and raised his shield. The bright red light struck the shimmering wall with a blazing boom.

Sogiita grunted. "What did you do to upset the robot army?"

"I don't know! it's just my usual rotten luck."

The laser attack stopped and Sogiita sighed letting down his shield. The moment he relaxed the other suits rush in and grabbed the powerful esper.

"Amazing kick!" Like his punch his foot was engulfed in the fire like energy and without much thought he kicked the arm that grabbed him. Metal was torn apart and the arm fell away. Sogiita fell backwards the robotic hand still grabbing his abdomen. The damaged power suit turned back to Touma, Touma was powerless against it and he had no idea how his fist would deal with something like that. That was when Hamazura jumped on the titan like machine's back. The blond delinquent struggled to rip the head piece off. Hamazura had some experience with the suits and managed to reach the emergency hatch release and pulled it. The second the suits opened up he hurried and took out the devices that allowed it to be controlled by remote. The suit became little more than a metallic statue after that.

The smell of melting metal filled the air as the others notice that Sogiita was using his laser vision to melt the hand that had him in it's grip.

Finally he broke free, "The last one is mine."

That was when the final suit just punched Sogiita, hitting him before he could react. The esper was tossed aside with so much for he cracked the wall he hit. Then the machine turned its attention to Touma and reached for him and the unlucky boy just barely dodged it.

"I'll get him out of here." Awaki told Himegami before she vanished.

The red haired girl appeared next to Touma and grabbed him. The power suit pointed it's laser right at them.

"Let's get out of here." Awaki tighten her grip on him and then tried to teleport. "What? Nothing is happening."

The tip of the gun started to glow an unnatural red as it's aim changed from Touma to Awaki. It didn't much to figure that the puppet master behind the machines had decided she was too much trouble. Awaki tried to teleport again but it failed, it seemed that her power whenever she needed them never worked. To her credit she didn't think of abandoning Touma, if she realized that he was the one keeping her from teleporting she might have thought about leaving him behind though.

"Look out!" Touma yelled as the blast was fired and with his full might Touma pushed her away and took the blast instead. The red light tore through his side and he collapsed to the ground. The smell of burnt flesh floated around them, Awaki could throw up at the realization that it smelled like roasted pig. The blast tore through his side, the hole was a clean tear about the side of a golf ball just below his left ribs. He clenched his jaw as he tried to ride out the pain.

"Why did you do that? Why did you take the hit?!" Awaki said in shock, trying to wrap her mind to why he would do something that could kill him.

"Do I need a reason?" He forced a smile as he answered her. "I just wanted to protect you."

Himegami made her way over and bent down to his side. Tears filled her eyes as she saw how badly he was hurt, though the laser cauterized the wound there were still sprinkles of blood around him and the promise that more would come if he wasn't treated soon. After all she had been through she didn't want to see blood again and certainly not from him.

Hamazura ran over to him next and took off his orange sweater and placed it on the wound in an attempt to stop any more blood from spilling out. Maybe it was for the better but that was when Touma passed out.

Sogiita on the other hand was furious. His eyes were ablaze with anger and his mind was burning with that rage that he didn't even bother to speak. He put all the power he could muster into his fist and raced towards the last standing suit. He leapt into the air and then everything changed. A loud noise filled the air and the energy around his fist vanished and his head ached. With one swipe of its arm the suit flicked the esper away like he was nothing but a bug.

Inside the bath most of other customers left since they were tired of the argument that was happening in the bath, the girls squabbled with one another and then they were silent. Suddenly a great pain over took them and they held their heads in pain. Itsuwa, Index, Saten and Seria seemed to be the only one's unaffected.

"What's happening to them?" Index questioned the events before her.

'"I've seen this before." Saten murmured as she was forced to watch her friends in pain.

Back outside Hamazura watched as Himegami, Sogiita and Awaki writhed in pain.

"It's Capacity down." Hamazura had never seen it first hand but he heard what it did from other members of Skill-Out. The loud noise in his ears and the espers pain was enough proof for him. Hamazura got up and tried to block them from the oncoming suit but he was only tossed to the side with a second delay.

A few minutes later the girls went outside to see what was going on. Their heads had hurt but then it stopped. Only slowing down to get dressed they hurried outside when the pain passed.

When they got outside they got the found Sogiita holding his side as he sat on the ground. Awaki, who tried to fight off the suit once more to only get her arm broken, was now being tended to by Himegami.

"What happened here?" Konori looked around.

"They took him…." Awaki groaned out as Himegami put her arm in a makeshift sling made of Hamazura's orange sweater.

"That's Hamazura's." Takitsubo's eyes widened as she spotted it. "What happened?"

Sogiita stared at them, "Those robot suits showed up and attacked us. They managed to hurt Kamijou with a laser and just left taking him, it didn't take it's buddies either." He glanced over at the suits they managed to beat.

"What?"! Mikoto was outraged. "Why didn't you stop it?! You one of the level five!" In a fit of anger she kicked him in his side.

He hissed out and pain and collapsed on his side. Mikoto gasped as she noticed his shirt started to turn red as his blood seeped out.

"What?" Mikoto muttered.

"My power's aren't at a hundred percent." Sogiita explained. "I'm sore and bruised from my fight with him. I can't concentrate and it takes a lot more for me to use my power at a lower level. The suits managed to land a few good hits on me. If it was few days from now and my guts were in shape they wouldn't have stood a chance…."

"You need to get to a doctor. You all do." Konori noted as she took out her cell phone.

"What happened to Hamazura?" Takitsubo's eyes pleaded for an answer.

"The blond guy? He's got guts." Sogiita grinned. "Even after it flung him off he tried." Him being a level zero kept him from being hurt by Capacity Down so he could still get up and do something. "The suit took Kamijou onto a black truck and drove off. He took a car and followed them."

"We have to find them." Takitsubo replied.

"Yeah, he might be an idiot but Hamazura is a member of ITEM and we can't let anyone make us look bad." Mugino growled out the words.

"Hey where did Fremea go?" Kinuhata noticed that the girl was missing.

Soon Anti-Skill arrived and they got the hurt to the hospital. They also examined the suits and found out they had recently stolen and the news about Touma being taken made it all the worse for them. It was particularly bad since one of the Anti-Skill Officers was a teacher at his school.

In a windowless building Aleister Crowley watched various screen unfold with information. He was unusually worried, he had not planned for this. This scenario was overlooked and even he didn't know where Touma was. Whoever was behind this was smart enough to stay hidden. He started to come up with plans to correct this. He decided that the common method in finding Touma might work.

On screens across the city the news broke out. A young female reporter with just a touch too much hair spray spoke to the camera. "Anti-Skill asking for the public's help tonight. A high school Student named Touma Kamijou was was attacked and kidnapped earlier today." Touma's picture was flashed on the screen. "The attacker remains unknown but attacked Kamijou and four other people before leaving with the unconscious student. If anyone has seen or knows anything about his whereabout please contact Anti-Skill."

The news cast continued on but many people couldn't focus on the rest of it.

"Did girls finally get sick of waiting, Kamijou?" Aogami watched the news in his room. "Have they taken you to away to keep other girls away from you?"

Komoe watched the news in utter shock, "Kamijou! You've been kidnapped?! How much trouble have you gotten yourself in now?"

"The savior has been taken! Misaka says in shock." Last order spoke loudly as she watched television.

"What trouble has that hero gotten into?" Accelerator mumbled as he sat next to the small clone.

"I'll get his room ready." The Heaven Canceler sighed as he watched the news cast in the hospital break room.

"The savior has been taken, we must go out to find him. Misaka says to the other sisters." The sisters gathered in their room after finding out about Touma from Last Order. Misaka 10032 and the other sister got ready to search for Touma.

ITEM got a call from Fremea that she would find and rescue Touma and Hamazura so they got ready to find the three of them and probably save them too.

Fremea found herself in a dark alley after night and yelled out, "Help me, rhinoceros beetle!"

After a moment a small white beetle flew towards her and then with a wisp of white smoke the beetle was replaced with a young man with white colored skin and shimmering green eyes.

He spoke with a calm smooth voice and gave her a gentle smile. "Fremea, it's been sometime."

"Hello Beetle! Essentially we have a problem, people are in danger and you are going to help me saved them." The small girl smiled triumphantly.

With that a race was set off, people all over would set of to find the keeper of imagine breaker not knowing that time was running out and what disasters awaited for them.

It was only a question of who would be lucky enough to find Touma first and would they get there in time.

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**Author's Notes: Okay another chapter is done for the next one Touma wouldn't be in the role of the hero. But who will ultimately save the luck challenged boy. Without a doubt the girls are going to get involved with hopes to win his favor. After the next chapter a magic arc will start and Komoe will have a role in that one. Special shout out to Loopsey who was the 100th reviewer. Go look at their stuff I really like To Ascend and suggest you read that. Anyway leave a review if you please. I'm also starting a new job tomorrow so I hope i can keep up with the posts as often as I've been doing. Also can someone explain Takitsubo powers and how they are now after giving up body crystal I'm a little confused about her power.**


	8. Chapter 8: To The Rescue

**Twist of Fate**

**Disclaimer: I do not own a certain magical index, it's characters or it's elements.**

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Chapter 8: To the Rescue

The city should have been peaceful at that time of night, but Anti-Skill were out searching for a certain student. Not one of them had stopped to question why every member of Anti-Skill had been called in for the search but the truth was that the Superintendent had lost track of that certain student and wanted him found. Though not officially a judgment member at the moment Uiharu volunteered to help and, using various street cameras, managed to track the black truck that Touma was last seen taken into.

Anti-Skill didn't waste any time to get to the truck. The truck was located in an empty parking lot next to an abandoned building that didn't have any power running into it. Soon two dozen security robots and even more Anti-Skill officers had surrounded the truck.

Yomikawa used a bull horn to demand Touma's release. The gym teacher was dressed in her Anti-Skill armor with her long ponytail draped behind her, "You are surrounded. Turn yourself in before anyone is hurt." Yomikawa was tense, not only was the student one from her own school but from what she heard he was already hurt. She glanced over to her side and saw that Konori's face was the portrait of worry. Konori was on the scene early on and managed to convince them to let her come along.

Each moment without a response from the truck felt like hours. They had no idea who was behind everything but knew for certain that they wanted Touma, and they had already hurt him.

"You have three seconds before we come in." Yomikawa gave her last warning. "Three, Two…." She signaled an Anti-Skill officer to move forwards. The moment they reached the door it felt wrong, the air around it felt off somehow. That was just their natural instincts warning them of danger. The next second the truck erupted outwards in large explosion. Yomikawa like the other officers ducked behind the security robot's shields.

"Touma…" Konori barely managed to find the strength to say those words as the newly ignited flames reflected off her glasses.

Yomikawa quickly jumped over the shield and pulled the other officer away from the flames, he'd been stunned but he seemed to have survived the explosion thanks to his armor. As medics started to treat the officer the security robots took care of the fire. After a moment Yomikawa inspected the remains of the truck, she cursed under her breath. "It's empty. It was set to go off, this was all just a distraction."

They were back to square one. Yomikawa moved over to Konori and put her hand on her shoulder, "Don't worry, well get to him. We'll get your boyfriend back."

"He's not….."Konori let her voice trail off.

"But you want him to be, right?" Yomikawa had seen that look on many girls at her school. "Like I said I, we'll find him." She worked up a smile to reassure Konori.

Yomikawa hoped that she could keep the promise. She had seen the dark side of the city and knew how often children were left in pools of their own blood to rot. She knew how often she wasn't there in time to save them, and she knew that Touma was hurt already and he might not have that much time left.

The news of the truck being nothing more than a decoy spread quickly. There were many people listening to their transmission, and they moved to find Touma. Many people asked: Where is Touma Kamijou?

_Touma Kamijou opened his eyes to find himself in a comfy bed in the middle of a lush room. The walls had a rustic feel to it with the wood paneling that covered the walls. The boy who held imagine breaker didn't remember what had happened._

_"Master? Did I wake you?" A feminine and familiar voice called to him._

_Touma focused his eyes to find a girl standing next to the bed. What surprised him was not the fact that she was dressed in a black and red maid uniform with a very short skirt. No, what surprised him was the fact that it was Seria Kumokawa. For a moment he couldn't believe it was really her but her trade mark headband told him it was._

_"Seria!" Touma shouted out in his utter surprise._

_"Good morning, master." She said flashing a bright smile._

_"Master?" Touma said, trying not to stare at the low cut top that the busty girl wore._

_Before he could say another word he found the girl climbing into bed and climbing onto him until she was straddling his hips. He focused every bit of will power he had to stopping the reaction that was unfolding in his lower body. She spoke with a sultry tone, "I just wanted to come and wake you up." She leaned forward. "But it seems you're already up."_

_"….ah." Touma drew a blank on how to react._

_"Does a cat have your tongue?" Seria leaned forwards and caught his lips with hers._

_Touma felt his cheeks burn bright red as her soft lips pressed against his. Soon her tongue wrestled his tongue as she pressed against him. Touma found himself slowly losing control as his hands snaked around her waist pulling her close to him._

"Wake up!" A slap to the face snapped Touma out this dream.

"Damn you Aogami!" Touma cursed his friend who he blamed for having such a dream. "I don't have a maid fetish!" Well, there are a lot of people that think so.

"What the hell?" A woman stood before him looking at him with disgust. "What were you doing? You had your tongue out and things were happening in your lower region…." Touma turned red. "What is wrong with you?" Said the woman who had knocked him out, kidnaped him, and had him strapped to a table.

He found himself strapped to a metal surgical table in the middle of a white well lit surgery room. The woman before him wore crisp green surgical scrubs.

"Who are you? Touma questioned.

"Oh, I'm Satomi Kihara. I'm a researcher here and I specialize in weapons that are to be used against espers. And I have to say that right hand of yours has caught my attention."

"What?"

"Oh, don't worry about it, you won't remember soon enough." She took a needle from a nearby tray and injected his arm with it.

"What did you inject me with?"

"It's a complicated mix of chemicals that block-" She paused. "Oh, I've seen your grades you wouldn't understand. It's called Bliss, it's basically a chemical compound that will make sure you can't feel any pain, or fear, or anger, or any negative emotion at all. It's great for surgeries but it's a little expressive it also has a tendency to mess with recent memories."

"Surgery?!" Touma panicked.

"I need to study your hand so I'm going to cut it off."

"What?!" Touma said as he struggled against his straps to escape.

"Don't bother." Satomi told him coldly. "You don't have it in you to escape." She patted his side which caused him to flinch in pain. "You were hurt and I've patched you up but you lost some blood. You don't have the strength to fight."

"You can't do this!"

"Oh, yes I can. I believe you mean I shouldn't because of morale ideal." She started to prepare her tools. "It is for the best. You have no AIM field what so ever and from what I can tell whatever thing that negates AIM fields is focused in your hand. Once I remove it I imagine you will actually be able to develop some sort of esper ability. And exchange for your participation I will personally install a top of the line cybernetic arm."

"What! No!"

"Oh, what's wrong? Your arm could lead to tremendous scientific discovery. It goes against all logic and laws that we have for espers. This could change the entire field. We can create weapons that won't actually harm espers, that is something you could agree with right? Weapons that make sure no one gets hurt, but just turns off their powers. I could finally get some respect from my family. You get a chance to get some real power and a top of the line arm that looks like a normal arm. It comes with a small computer and the screen is hidden with a small sliding panel. I hear if you pay for the subscription service you can watch TV on it. Even if you don't you can connect your phone and get internet on it. It's really useful."

"That's insane."

"No, it really does come with wireless internet. People seem to like the feature."

"No, not that! You can't just cut off my arm!"

"Why not? This way everyone wins. Frankly I think I'm being very generous to you."

"If you think…" Touma was about to go into one of his speeches when he suddenly felt so weak. "Bad things happen when my arm is cut off. There is a monster… an invisible thing comes out…."

"Okay, well it looks like the Bliss has kicked in and it's making you loopy already. Just relax, soon I'll start and then I'll drop you off at a hospital." She felt confident that she would have enough time.

Her plan was sheer elegance in its simplicity, or so she thought. The plan was in reality very complicated and confusing. The truck was not the only decoy merely the first one, as Anti-skill was about to found out.

After checking the cameras again they found that there was another truck there waiting for the kidnapper. They got off the first truck and went onto the second one. As they continued digging they found that truck went into a parking structure and a few minutes later several trucks left at the same time. Each one was driven by a system similar to the self-driving busses the city used and ordered to park throughout the city. After several minutes of tracking them all Anti-Skill soon located them. Anti-Skill went to check them all out but they had spread themselves too thin searching for Touma already. In their absence others took a chance.

Mikoto and Kuroko were quick to arrive at a street that had been emptied by that time at night. There was a basic truck parked at the edge of the street.

"Come on, let's go save this gentlemen." Kuroko said, eager to finish.

"Yeah." Mikoto blushed, eager to be the one to do the saving for once. She had heard about the other truck exploding so from a safe distance she used her control over magnetism to rip off the door. The door flung off and they both looked inside. When nothing happened they expected it to be a dead end. But then a laser blast shot across them, if Mikoto hadn't sensed it and pushed them out of the way it would have struck them. They started to get a look at their surroundings only to see that power suits were gathering around them.

"It's a trap." The pig tailed teleporter pointed out.

Like the previous power suits they didn't have anyone in them but had a simple program running them to attack anyone they saw when the truck was open.

Sparks shot of the tea colored hair as Mikoto grit her teeth. "He's not here. Fine, I'll have to take out my aggressions out on these."

The look of on her face at that moment scared Kuroko, though she kinda liked it. For two powerful espers, it wouldn't take much for them to take those suits out.

Elsewhere in the city Seria and Misaki stood in front of a blue truck. Seria had used her connections to figure out the location of one of the trucks. After opening it up they were confronted with a half dozen criminal espers that had been let out of their cells and outfitted with strange collars.

"Sigh." Misaki actually said sigh. She held her remote before her, taking control of the espers with little effort. "So, Touma isn't here?"

"No, he isn't." Seria started to remove the collars and the espers simply dropped to the ground unconscious when she finished with them.

Anti-Skill was working on checking all the trucks but were having as little success as the others. At the moment the green haired Tsuzuri Tessou had opened another truck. She was backed up with other officers but none expected what had happened. The moment she opened the door a white foam exploded outwards and covered her to her neck. Most described it like seeing a small avalanche. The foam quickly hardened leaving her stuck and her head sticking out at an awkward angle.

Her glasses slid down to the tip of her noise as she sniffled out, "Yomikawa, help me."

Yomikawa sighed exacerbated, "We're going to need a sledge hammer."

"Here! Misaka is certain he's here! Misaka says puffing out her chest with confidence." Last Order was at yet another truck where she reached for the handle and with a bit of her power managed to unlock the door.

"Stop!" Accelerator tried to stop her but it was too late. He heard the sound of a bomb beeping. As quickly as he could he flicked the switch on his collar and grabbed the small girl. The truck erupted, sending metal and fire in every direction. A moment later the boy walked away from the flames holding Last Order in his arms, he had used his vector manipulation to keep them from being hurt.

"Maybe he wasn't there. Misaka says sheepishly finding out she acted too quickly."

Accelerator clicked his tongue as he glared at her.

Elsewhere at yet another truck two clones had a similar problem.

"Misaka sighs annoyed." Misaka 10032 narrated to the network. "After opening one of the trucks believed to hold the savior or clues to his whereabouts Misaka 19090 was knocked out."

The other clone was on the ground fast asleep muttering, "Oh, savior. Misaka says enraptured by the saviors touch."

The others asked her what happened through the network and 10032 answered, "There were several cans of sleeping gas set to be released when the door was opened. Misaka explains the situation. Misaka 19090 inhaled much of it and is now fast asleep. Since there seems to be no evidence of the saviors whereabouts Misaka will just take Misaka 19090 back to the hospital."

Elsewhere racing on a motorcycle Uiharu was screaming along with Saten. After Touma was taken and the information on the trucks was revealed Itsuwa grabbed Uiharu. Uiharu didn't argue back with her since the second Itsuwa became determined she also became rather terrifying. Also Uiharu had her own reasons to tag along. Uiharu was leading Itsuwa on her motorcycle, well, mostly yelling the directions to one of the trucks as she clung to Itsuwa's back while she drove well beyond the speed limit. Saten, who tagged along, shared the side car with Index. Both Index and Saten screamed as the motorcycle went faster than they would have thought possible, and both girls clung to each other as they screamed.

"There it is!" Uiharu yelled out, spotting the truck near a park.

The motorcycle came to a screeching stop to the relief of the other three girls.

"I think I saw my life flash before my eyes." Saten muttered as she clung to Index.

"Me too." Index said. "So many tasty foods I want to eat again."

Itsuwa grabbed her bag as she climbed off the motorcycle and pulled out a small stack of papers before walking towards the truck. The other girls where rather shaken but Itsuwa was a rock as she held out the stack of papers. Calmly she pulled out a match, and with the stack of papers on her palm she lit them. The fire never seemed to touch her skin but danced playfully above it. The other girls watched in silence as Itsuwa chanted something Uiharu was certain she had heard in a video game before. Itsuwa tossed the papers into the air and pointed at the truck, suddenly the pieces of paper spun like daggers and cut through the truck. The truck was cut to ribbons and fell apart as the ember of the papers died.

Itsuwa determined as ever stomped back to the motorcycle. "He wasn't here. Where is the next truck?"

Uiharu quickly searched on her smart phone. This was the third truck in a row that Itsuwa had utterly destroyed. Saten nor Uiharu had any clue as to how she managed it nor had they the guts to ask her. They could tell that she was determined to find Touma and they were too scared of her at the moment to say anything against it or try to slow her down. As they drove off a power suit jumped out of the remains of the truck only to collapse as it's parts fell apart.

Of course none of them would find Touma in any of the trucks since he wasn't near any of them. After they got onto the second truck Satomi drove for a little bit before she got Touma off it and they got on a car she parked nearby. The trucks were all driven by similar systems as those that drove the busses so it drove by itself to where it was found. Satomi was just distracting them so she could finish in peace without worrying of Anti-Skill. The city was turmoil as trucks around the city caused damage one way or another. In many ways it was a good plan. All the equipment was either something she made or things that she 'borrowed' from her family, usually failed projects or prototypes.

What she didn't expect was that Hamazura had been following her personally with a car since the start. Hamazura wasn't in the best shape, he had suffered some injuries after the fight but he still wanted to help save Touma. He just didn't have any idea on how he was going to do it. That was when he heard the buzzing of a bug. He looked into the sky where a large white beetle was flying towards him and sitting on top of the beetle was a small girl with blonde hair.

"Fremea?! What are you doing here!?" Hamazura shouted at them.

A moment later the girl climbed down from the beetle once it landed and she explained her plan. Essentially it was to have the beetle attack the building and her to sneak in and rescue Touma and then sneak him back out

"Essentially that is it." Fremea said, proud of herself.

"That's pretty stupid." Hamazura replied bluntly to receive a pout from the girl.

"Well, there could be some improvement." The number two esper spoke. "How about me and Hamazura attack directly and draw their fire while you sneak in like before but…"

"But what?" Fremea questioned.

"I'll give you another beetle to unlock your doors and serve as a scout for you."

Hamazura assumed Kakine was using it as an excuse to keep an eye on her but didn't want to argue. The beetle would be able to protect her should something happen.

"Okay, that sounds essentially fine." Fremea agreed and the plan was set.

"Huh, I didn't bring any weapons or anything." Hamazura mentioned as they made their way towards the building while Fremea went towards the entrance carefully.

Dark Matter used his name sake power to create a starch white baseball bat. "This should work."

Hamazura took the bat though he would have wanted something else, still a bat made of dark matter should have some positives attributes.

"You're hurt?" Kakine asked, noticing that Hamazura was limping.

"Don't worry about it. It's nothing."

"You don't have to come, I'm certain I can handle it." He paused. "It's partly my fault that Kamijou was there when he was attacked. I have to do everything I can to help him at least."

Kakine touched the wall of the building, his powers allowed him to sense the past of an item and with the building it let him know that recently people arrived. He lead the level zero to another portion of the wall, "Hit here. It will give us a clear shot at Kamijou and his captor."

Hamazura looked at the bat before he shrugged and hit the wall.

"No… the thing." Kamijou said as he vainly tried to struggle from his straps in the surgery room.

"Nap now." Satomi said placing a gas mask on him and he quickly went to sleep.

Satomi prepared her tools for the surgery and unstrapped Touma's arm to push up his sleeve.

The whole room shook as a massive hole brought a wall down to rubble. Satomi looked over to see a blond haired delinquent with a bat and a boy who seemed to be painted all in white with wings suddenly sprouting out of his back.

"Dark Matter?" Satomi muttered. "Crap. I wasn't expecting you."

Kakine floated only a few feet in the air. "Let us take Kamijou from here and surrender to Anti-Skill. Give up now before anyone else gets hurt."

Satomi sighed, annoyed, and picked up a water bottle as casually as if she was talking to a friend. "That is a tempting offer but..." She picked up Touma's lip arm and aimed it at him. "You know what he can do?" She continued when the esper nodded silently. "Then if you come close to him there is a chance you'd vanish. I heard about your fight with number one and that you're nothing but dark matter now. If you get closer …." She let their imagination fill in the rest. "I'm already responsible for taking out one Level Five tonight and I wouldn't mind doing a second one."

"I don't have any abilities." Hamazura spoke up. "His hand won't do anything to me."

"True." Satomi admitted as she pulled a small seed into her pocket and dropped it into the water bottle and closed the top. "So why don't you have a drink." She tossed the bottle battle at Hamazura.

Instinctively he caught it without any real effort. "Was that supposed to do something?"

"Give it a second."

And a second later the bottle started to shake uncontrollably and Hamazura swore that it felt heavier. Then the bottle burst open and some sort of vegetation burst out of it wrapped itself around the Level zero's arm. "What is it?"

The plant started to grow faster and faster and it started to cover his arm forcing him to drop the bat as he struggled with it. Kakine quickly forged a blade of dark matter and cut off the bulk of the plant from Hamazura, letting it fall to the floor.

"It's still growing." Hamazura pointed out.

That was when the floating esper noticed that the piece that hit the floor was still growing with roots spreading out towards the fresh Earth outside.

"That's an interesting plant. Genetically modified to grow uncontrollably once it gets a taste of water. One of my cousins came up with it as a means of creating a barrier in a battle field quickly." Satomi spoke as the plant started to pushed them back as it touched the Earth and grew higher. "It takes a lot of nutrients to grow so fast so it's always hungry. It also has a habit of taking nutrients from anything it touches, including people." The skin that the plant clung to was turned pale like it was lacking blood. "If you don't get that off of him he will be dead in a few minutes. So here is your choice Dark Matter: save him and give me time to run or try to save this guy who if you try to touch might end up killing you. If you ask me, save the one that will die for sure, I have no intention of killing Kamijou just taking his arm."

They pulled back as the wall was filled with wild vines, as the green slimy plant stretched outwards towards them. The plant couldn't draw that many nutrients from floor tiles so it didn't grow much inside. Kakine slashed at the plant wall but barely made a dent before the plant just grew back thicker and denser, the bigger it got the harder it became.

He pulled Hamazura back with him as he studied the plant that was growing on his arm. He guessed that the level zero's own bodily defense had managed to slow it down but not enough to save him.

"I don't think it can draw nutrients from dark matter." Kakine guessed. "I might be able to kill it but I have to kill it at the cellular level. We have to fall back."

"Hamazura!" A voice yelled out, the voice belonged to Takitsubo as she raced to her boyfriend.

"You made it super easy to follow you." Kinuhata with Mugino just behind her spoke out. "We just followed your cellphone GPS. Good thing too, it looks like you got yourself in trouble. What's with the plant?"

They gave a quick run down of the problem.

"Oh," Mugino said calmly. "Is that all? Fine, you get that thing off him and me and Kinuhata will take of the plant and rescue the boy before Fremea gets into more trouble."

Mugino didn't wait to reply as four round spheres of green light formed around her and a blast fired out into the plant. The blast tore into the plant but it was quickly recovered by growing fast enough undo the damage as it sucked more nutrients from the ground. The roots wriggled into the air as if to reach for them.

Kinuhata stretched out her arms and started to manipulate the nitrogen in the air around her. "Hm, plants feed off of nitrogen, right?" The roots followed the new source of nitrogen and that pulled them away from the others. "Looks like it does. Oh, this reminds me of a movie I saw! There were a bunch of girls and this magic plant."

One of the roots quickly was cut in two by Mugino, the esper winced at the terrible smell of burning plants that filled the air. Mugino wildly fired at the plant and quickly grew angry that it kept growing so she just started attacking faster.

Takitsubo held her boyfriend's uninfected hand as Kakine spoke, "I can destroy them but I have to make sure I get every cell. If I leave one it will just grow again like a cancer. I will have to take the upper most layer, so it's probably going to hurt."

"Do you what you have to." Hamazura braced himself.

Carefully Kakine produced more dark matter in the shape of tiny beetles, under his control the beetles ripped and squashed the tiny plant cells and unfortunately anything those cell grabbed to feed. Hamazura's screams were something none of the members of ITEM were rather pleased to hear and so they all decided they wanted to hurt the person behind this. The fire that started within them encouraged them to tear that monstrous plant faster.

The moment that the wall of foliage was put up Satomi knew she'd have to hurry so instead of a knife she pulled out a surgical saw. "Oh, you will have to blame your friends out there for the quick surgery. Well, it's not like you can feel pain right now." She mused to herself as the saw reeved up as the blade spun.

She didn't hesitate and went right to cutting it off Touma's lower arm. The red blood spilled over the floor and onto her hospital scrubs making it look like a Jackson Pollock painting. After a short moment the saw stopped as the lower part of his arm was cleanly cut off.

"There, that wasn't so bad now was it?" She mused to herself.

Satomi took the arm and prepared to move it into a cooler. Suddenly she stopped as an overwhelming presence filled her, it was like something crushing her heart. She turned around and saw a form taking shape in the blood that gushed out of the stump.

"What?" Her mind drew a blank as it tried vainly to understand what was happening. Suddenly the shape took form as it grasped her. She flailed in attempt to escape the impossible thing's jaws.

"No. Nononono!" She screamed. "You can't be real. This is an illusion" she felt it's teeth piercing into her flesh. She let out another scream as her blood started to gush out her mouth and her wounds. Her eyes met the things large blinking eye that gazed into her very being. "No, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'll stop. I promise. I'll do anything. Just-" The jaw started to close on her. "HELP! PLEASE! NO!" She begged for mercy. "Ah!" Satomi pleaded to anything that might listen for help. She forgot and left behind all that science had taught her and begged for some force greater than her to save her.

Her blood curling screams could be heard outside. After a moment the plant just stopped, it started to wither and die. Needless to say none present were comfortable with what happened. They told themselves that the plant simply ran out of nutrients to feed off and died. Mugino cut through the remains with her Meltdowner. With the plant removed they found Fremea there unstrapping an unconscious Touma.

"Yay! I saved him." Fremea cheered. "And you helped." The girl added almost like an afterthought. "When did the rest of you get here?"

They slowly stepped inside, carefully inspecting the room.

"This is super weird." Kinuhata said, her voice unsure. "I found her."

Satomi was looking up at the ceiling with dead empty eyes as her body shuddered uncontrollably. "It looks like an animal attacked." Her blood was pooling underneath her and it looked like pieces of her flesh were torn off as if by some impossibly big teeth.

Kinuhata pushed Fremea outside trying not to let her see that sight. "Come on, Fremea. Let's go and scold Hamazura for getting himself super hurt."

Mugino studied the woman, in all her history involved in the Dark Side of the city she had never seen anything like that, most would call it a miracle that she survived it at all. Mugino had never seen someone broken so quickly, damage of that level usually took a week's worth of torture.

Kakine had finished with Hamazura and applied a dark matter patch over his arm while Takitsubo called an ambulance. The improvised surgery that Kakine performed went well, a lot better than he expected, for some reason he couldn't help but feel that Takitsubo somehow willed it to go as well as it did. Now the esper who mastered dark matter studied Touma, he seemed perfectly alright but there was blood splattered around his arm and a bloodied surgical saw. Still from what he could see Touma's arm was perfectly fine with not so much as a knick. Something didn't sit right but it was something beyond his understanding.

Both Level zeroes were taken to the hospital and Anti-Skill took custody of Satomi after she was checked out by the doctors. Soon news spread that ended the search for Touma. The official story was that a researcher went insane and fixated on Touma and kidnapped him. Touma was being treated and he would be fine, this news let people rest peacefully. While they slept many people actually dreamed of the level zero.

Itsuwa dreamed of nursing the young man. Index dreamed of being fed by the boy. Misaki dreamt of the time she was first saved by her prince. Seria had a strange dream that involved a maid outfit which she swore never to talk about to her sister. Aogami had an odd dream of having lunch with Touma, it had no romantic or sexual component but he found it strange that he had a dream with Touma in it at all. Komoe dreamt of her student returning to class and actually having done his homework. Saten ever since she saw him fight in the restaurant dreamt of a brave knight Touma saving her from a terrible dragon. For the same reason Uiharu dreamed of Touma too, except her dream was surprisingly much more graphic and adult rated. It's always the ones you don't expect. Konori simply dreamed of her cuddling with the boy. Mikoto herself cuddled her pillow as she had a dream with Touma thanking her for saving him, thanking her in fairly graphic ways, which still paled in comparison to Uiharu's dream.

Another girl had a different dream._ Touma gently caressed her face which grew a pink blush. His tender touch made her heart swell. Slowly they moved towards one another and their lips met._

"Ah!" Kuroko woke up from the dream. "What kind of dream was that?" She clung to her pillow. That was second dream filled night she has of that type dream with Touma as the center focus. There were no words to describe how confused she was. Her heart still beat faster when she looked at her roommate. She still wanted Konori and him to get together so that Mikoto could be hers. Her world was seemingly falling apart around her.

This was not going to be strangest thing to happen in the next week. It wasn't even going to be strangest thing to happen in the week that involved love.

"I must kill him." Kuroko decided. "I must kill him before his spells clouds my mind! Before he decided to take Onee-sama's body, my sempai's body, and my own body for his sick pleasure. His sick twisted pleasures. With all three of us doing every sick and depraved thing imaginable to satisfy his unquenchable lust. All three off us in his bed." She started to imagine her naked body pressed against his naked form and she started to drool. "His strong fit body taking care of all of our needs…. all of my…." She clasped her hand over her mouth surprised by what she was saying. She buried her head into her pillow and rolled around in her bed flailing.

Still not the weirdest thing that would happen in the week, it's up there though.

That night Touma slept without worries and without dreams. Maybe he should have worried a little.

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**Author's Note: Like I said in the last chapter Loopsey was the 100th reviewer so I let them pick who Touma gets to kiss in this chapter. I bet you're all shocked by Kuroko in this chapter well besides it just going to give lots to work with comedy wise this little subplot will lead into the big thing in this story. The resolution I think is going to be a nice moment. Trust me there are things in the first chapter that hint to what's really going on. A lot of people are actually leaving reviews questioning things and they do tend to be part of it. So you guys are starting to see the big picture so I can't wait to see who figures out what is going on first. Lastly big thanks to my beta reader icefriend. Thanks again. Leave a review telling me what you think. Next chapter will involved everyones favorite pink haired teacher getting involved on the magic side and some major clues to what is really going on and why things have been going weird.**


	9. Chapter 9: Sweet Dreams

**Twist of Fate**

**Disclaimer: I do not own a certain magical index, it's characters or it's elements.**

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Chapter 9: Sweet Dreams

_The place was a mess. It looked like a disaster had happened, but that wasn't the case, disasters aren't planed. The city was in turmoil and it seemed the world would soon follow. Sogiita was breathing hard as he stumbled through the wreckage. His body beaten and bloody and his clothes were little more than then tatters. He had been fighting, fighting with more guts than he even thought he had. He couldn't give up, too many people would die if he did. He walked forward and in between the wreckage he spotted the collapsed remains of the windowless building. He wouldn't be surprised if the whole city was brought down by the battle. No, calling it a battle was wrong. It was slaughter, even the other Level Fives were being beaten with ridicules ease. His eyes were drawn up to the sky painted red and the sound of thunder crackling in the sky. No, it wasn't thunder it was something else. It was a roar._

Sogiita woke up from the dream. He was in a bed that the hospital provided. He looked out the window and saw the early morning sun peaking behind the buildings of Academy City. He tried to shake off the dream but something about it seemed so real.

Inside the Windowless Building Aleister Crowley floated upside down in a tube. He stared at screens before him trying to figure out what had gone wrong. His system of nanobots across the city failed him. It seemed the fight between Touma and Sogiita had damaged the system, more than likely due to Sogiita's strange power and the appearance of the Invisible Thing. The damage was supposed to be minimal or so he thought at first, he thought it was some error in the system and nothing that would continue. He was wrong. The errors continued to spread unnoticed after the fight. Right before Touma was captured the whole system went into critical shut down. He wondered if somehow Satomi caused it to fail at that moment or if it was just her good fortune that it had happened at that moment. He would investigate but it seemed something had happened to her and her mind was lost. She was little more than a corpse that still breathed.

The Kihara family had already gone to inspect Satomi only to find her as little more than a shell. There was no evidence of damage done to her brain or any esper tampering but her mind was gone. Her brain continued to function but all higher brain activity just didn't work. It seemed like every memory cell in her brain had been cleared. It unnerved every Kihara that someone or something could possibly erase their minds. They were weary of Touma already but now they had real reason to fear him. Crowley wanted them to think that, to never even dare go after anyone that he might need. Satomi was placed in a cell where she was going to be watched and kept alive. Still Crowley worried about what was happening and couldn't shake the feeling that something out of his control was happening in his city. So at the moment he began to fix the system.

Touma Kamijou opened his eyes to find himself staring at a ceiling, "Familiar ceiling. Oh, I'm the hospital again." He blinked awake. "My arm!" He quickly looked down at his arm to find it still attached. "Huh?"

He found Himegami sleeping beside him, and more importantly he saw that her head was currently resting on his leg.

"Oh, you're awake." Another voice spoke silently.

"Awaki?"

The red haired esper gave him a smirk as she sat by the window. "She had me sneak her in to check on you."

That was when he noticed her arm was in a sling, "You're hurt. Is that because of me?"

"Don't worry about it." Awaki waved him off with her good arm. "You saved me from the laser. The least I could do was try to save you. The power suit just flicked me off though."

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be. I knew what I was doing. The arm is all but fixed, thanks to the medical technology here it just needs a day and I'll be out of the cast."

Touma was a little relieved to hear that. "Well, I'm glad you're okay."

Awaki sighed, "She's a good girl. She came with me all the way here and when she heard you got here all she wanted to do is check up on you." The esper yawned, "I better head back into my room. That frog faced doctor wants to check my arm before they let me go. I better go back to my room then."

She made her way over to Himegami and nudged her wake. The girl in the miko outfit snapped awake when she realized were she was resting.

"Ah!" Himegami said. "Kamijou? You're up. It's good to see that you're all right."

Touma smiled at her as Awaki led the blushing girl away. Touma wondered why she blushed and assumed that she hadn't slept that well. In fact the girls in that room had had the most restful sleep out of every other girl he knew. The girls left the room.

A little while later the spiky haired Sogiita burst through his door.

"How are you doing?" Touma questioned him.

"I'm doing great. That frog faced doctor said I'm good to go. I just have to take it easy and I should be a hundred percent in a few days. I'm going to heal up super quickly thanks to my guts!" They already gave him some medication so that helped too.

"Good to hear." Touma gave him a weary smile. "Thanks for all that help you gave me."

"No problem, if that robot didn't have so much guts to knock out my powers I would have taken it out. Still I'm going to train and work up my guts so it won't be able to do it again. When the robots rise I will beat them." Sogiita balled up his fist and Touma stayed silent as not to encourage him. "Now you use your guts and get better."

Touma promised he would as he continued to rest after the esper left. A little while later he had another guest, two actually and both blond.

"Hello." Fremea smiled as she went up to his bed. "Are you okay? It essentially looks bad."

"Fremea, be nice." Hamazura scolded the girl, his arm was wrapped up in bandages and he had regained his sweater.

"That's okay." Touma smiled at her. "I heard you guys saved me, thank you for that."

"Yes, essentially I saved you, Hamazura and the other's helped."

"Well, you did a good job." Touma patted her head gently. He remembered how scared she was in the last time they met and he was happy to see how much braver she was now.

"Are you okay, boss?" Hamazura spoke to him. "You were drugged by that weird researcher. Something in her lab must have gone off, it left her in a sorry state, maybe it got on you too."

"No, I'm fine." Touma assured him. He had heard what state the woman was found in. He didn't remember much but in his haze he remembered a roar. "How are you?" Touma hated how so many people had gotten hurt trying to save him, he hated getting people hurt. It was the reason why he didn't like getting people involved.

"There you are!" Kinuhata burst into the room with Takitsubo. "Mugino is waiting with the car outside. She's super impatient."

Hamazura scratched his head, "Yeah, that doctor said I could leave after he finished patching me up. I'm about to go."

"Yeah, he's super ready to go home." Kinuhata held out a large paper bag. "Oh, I got you something so you'd feel better." She pulled out a pair of costumed bunny ears and placed them on Takitsubo. "Ta-dah!" Kinuhata cheered. "I've got the rest of the bunny girl costume in the bag and it's a perfect fit for Takitsubo."

Hamazura stared at her for a moment as if frozen in that state. He grabbed his nose to stop the sudden flow of blood. "Gah!" He shouted as he forced himself to look away.

"Essentially Hamazura is bleeding to death!" Fremea panicked, waving her arms around frantically.

Touma himself couldn't help but chuckle at the sight. Eventually the small group left fearing angering the waiting level five. Touma went back to resting, which was not to last as Index came to check on her roommate with Itsuwa.

"Touma!" The little nun growled.

Touma braced himself for the chomp that he was sure to come. "Please Index! It wasn't my fault. I was just standing in front the bath house when someone attacked me with one of those high tech suits. I didn't do anything."

Index stared at the boy for a moment with cold judging eyes and then they softened, "Touma, you were hurt. You always get hurt for doing something. Now you're getting hurt after doing nothing."

Itsuwa didn't say anything but she felt guilty, she was his guard but she wasn't there to protect him. Still she had to hide the sadness she felt and continue on.

"I brought you something." Itsuwa perked up and brought something out of her bag, it looked like a Tupperware container and that was because it was. Inside was a dish Itsuwa had prepared, "This is a dish, it's an old recipe from the Amakusa, it is said to help the body heal."

I'll spare you the details over the discussion they had about it working on Touma because of his right hand. They decided for him to eat it since it still had vegetables and vitamins and even if the ingredients didn't formed a spell the vitamins were bound to help. Touma started to eat his dish and Index was forced not to finish it for him. Again the door pushed open. Seriously no one is knocking.

They were soon confronted with Mikoto, Kuroko, Saten, Uiharu and Konori.

"What are you crass girls doing here?" Index glared at Mikoto and Kuroko.

The glare was quickly returned by Mikoto.

Trying to diffuse the situation Konori spoke up, "We came by to visit Tou- " She quickly corrected herself. "Kamijou. We came to see that he was okay." She walked up to Index with a smile. "I'm Mii Konori, who are you?"

Index remembered what Touma had told her before but it seemed too late, the girl before her seemed nice enough, "I'm Index, Index Librorum Prohibitorum."

Konori blinked at the response but smiled nonetheless. "It's very nice to meet you Index."

"Huh, why are you dressed like a nun?" Saten couldn't help but ask.

"That's because I am a nun for the English Anglican Church."

"Really?" Saten continued to poke. "I thought nun outfits were supposed to be black not white."

Seeing the little nun about to get really angry Uiharu stepped in, "Sorry about that. We don't see a lot of religious figures in this city. Though I'm sure I saw a shrine maiden the other day."

Despite that conversation Konori and Itsuwa introduced each other and then turned back to Touma.

Mikoto spoke up, "So we brought you some things."

"What more cookies?" Touma asked.

"Cookies?" Saten clung to that word. "Wait, were you the one that Misaka baked those cookies for?"

Touma just looked at her with confusion, "No, I never got any cookies like that from her." That was the truth. "I did get some store bought ones from her once."

Kuroko's jaw dropped, "You gave that gentle ape some cookies?!" She didn't know if she was angry because her beloved onee-sama had given him cookies or the fact that she had gotten closer to him than she was. Overall she was still confused about everything that involved him.

"But you didn't have to get me anything." The spiky haired boy insisted.

"No, we insisted." Konori told him. "You've been through a lot. The day after you got into a fight with Sogiita you get attacked at a restaurant and then you get kidnaped."

"Attacked!" A dark aura formed around the small nun as she gritted her teeth, ready to bite.

They would have gone into it but yet another visitor arrived, this one had a frog face, "Oh, Kamijou it seems you have a lot of pretty guests today." The doctor known as Heaven Canceler chuckled. "We just have to do one thing." Following that several members of the hospital staff walked in and all moved to the sides of his bed, one of them handed Konori a camera.

"Congratulations Kamijou, you broke the city record for most hospital visits in a single year." With that he handed him a plaque with his name. With that the staff smiled and signaled Konori to take the shot. It was an odd picture.

A tall woman with long dark hair smiled, "Be careful Touma." She was a surgeon that worked at that hospital. "There is going to be a party to celebrate for you later. I know we got your favorite kind of cake but I'm not going to be able to come."

"Ryoko?" Touma looked at her.

"I'm going on a cruise for a week. I'm leaving at the end of my shift. I proposed to Yuki and we're going to celebrate."

"Oh, she said yes? Congratulations, I think you two make a good couple."

"Save the date, you'll be getting an invitation." The surgeon beamed him a smile before she left the room.

As some of the other staff started to wonder off his physical therapist examined his arm, "Well, your arm looks good." She sighed, "Ever since you came with your arm cut off I worry that it will stop working."

"Well, I don't want that, Sena." Touma smiled at her as she walked off.

He turned to the male nurse the moment she left. "Kodaka, have you asked her out yet?"

The male nurse just said, "No, just no."

"You like her and I know she likes you. Ask, it's better than not knowing."

"Fine, Touma." He puffed out his chest. "I'll ask at the party, in a nice social setting."

"Do that."

Finally the rest of the staff left the doctor spoke, "If he doesn't act he's going to lose that girl."

"Yeah, she's tired of waiting for him to make a move." Touma agreed.

The doctor looked over his clip board, "All your tests came out fine. No signs of infection and the skin graft is doing nicely. I want to run another MRI to make sure and I want you to rest for three days. And no checking yourself out early, the city is paying for your hospital stay. Since it was one of the city's researchers doing that got you here they say it's only fair they pay." More like Crowley wanted Touma in a safe place while he fixed his network. "So rest up and in two hours you can get some cake," As he started to leave. "Oh, I'll take this." He took the plaque. "We're going to hang this on the door to the room."

He left and Touma returned his attention to his other guests who he found with their jaws dropped. They were all in shock that Touma came to the hospital so often he was on first name terms with the staff and that they gave him a plaque for the room.

In the next few days he got more visitors but nothing much to report. Misaki and Seria came by and brought freshly baked cookies they made. He got a nice card from his class with a fruit basket along with all the homework that he was going to miss. His classmates were very nice to him, they didn't joke about this one as the story went that the researcher went crazy and shot him. No one found it funny.

Finally Touma went back to school and trouble would soon find him.

Things were happening as Misaki's clique gathered in secret and by in secret I mean without Misaki.

One girl spoke, "I'm sure you've all noticed how the queen has been acting lately. She's been going on trips alone lately. And today she fell asleep in class and she mumbled a name, Touma."

"The same boy that was kidnapped a few days ago?" Another asked.

"I think so. I saw her playing with her phone and a picture of him popped up. I think that this boy has somehow won our queen's heart."

"I think I saw him going on a date with the railgun near the end of summer." Another girl pointed out.

"Exactly." The first girl continued. "We have to investigate this man. We must make sure he isn't praying on the Queen maiden's heart. And we must make certain he is worthy of her affections."

The group of girls all quickly agreed.

Elsewhere in a cafe Kuroko drank a cup of coffee as she tried to regain her strength. She had another night filled with dreams about Touma that left her befuddled and confused.

"Are you all right?" A voice that belonged to Mitsuko Kongou spoke. "You look terrible."

"It's that man. He keeps me up every night. All night."

Kongou blushed, "You mean you've been …" She couldn't even say it. "With a man? The way you act around Misaka I assumed men weren't your type."

"Huh?" The teleporter spoke. "I don't know anymore. It just started, every night he comes to me in my dreams and does lewd things to me." A perverted smirk appeared on her face. "All night until I can't move anymore until I cry out in pleasure." She shook her head. "No! My dreams used to be my Onee-Sama's domain, why is he in there now? Why does my heart race for him too?"

Kongou considered the girl before her a rival but could tell she was in trouble with the heart. "Kuroko, if you want I will help you."

"What can you do?"

"Nothing but I know of someone that can help. A little a while ago one of the Board of Directors members who'd been single her whole life brought someone into the city to help her. This woman is a miracle worker with the matters of the heart. She found the director's soul mate."

"Soul mate?"

"Well, the rumor is that it was actually a boy she had a crush with when they were both young. Over time they had forgotten one another but this woman brought them together and they fell in love on first sight. Since then she has been asked to do the same for many more people and succeeded every time. They say if there is an issue involving love that she can solve it, no matter what."

Kuroko didn't know what to think of this woman but she had no better option so she agreed. Kongou started to make a few phone calls.

As the school day ended Touma found himself still in class as Komoe gave him extra lessons. In that class was Aogami who make sure to stay behind and Itsuwa was also there because she wasn't particularly good at her science classes. They had fallen into a pattern, after classes Touma and Itsuwa would head to his apartment and Itsuwa would make dinner for them and Index. It was a nice and peaceful pattern. On their way home they would stop at the market to pick up some groceries. What they didn't know was that several girls were watching them.

"That girl has to be his girlfriend. Is he two timing the queen?"

"No, the Queen would know." Another girl spied on them with binoculars as she hid in the bushes and spoke on her cell phone. "I don't think they are dating. I don't think I've seen them do anything romantic. They do a lot of grocery shopping."

"Yes, and afterwards they go to his dorm and she stays there for hours." The other girl insisted on her phone from her hiding spot.

"They seem to mostly cook. I heard them talking about someone called Index, I think it's some sort of fat cat he has."

"What? Why do you say that?"

"I heard them talking and saying how much food Index eats and messes up the dorm. That Index jumps into bed with him if he doesn't lock the door. And I saw them buy some cat food."

Index for some reason felt very angry at that moment. After having three straight days of chaos Touma was glad that things returns into a peaceful state.

In a certain small teacher's apartment on her free day she found herself sitting across Awaki.

"So something is troubling you?" Komoe was more than willing to help out any student at any time.

The teleporter sighed, "I have this problem." The girl shook her head causing her pig tails to swing a bit. "Since I started going to school I've made a friend."

"That is good." Komoe nodded pleased.

"But then there is this guy. I know this friend likes him but I've sort of started to fall for him."

Komoe froze in place. "You are falling for Kamijou even though you know Himegami likes him?"

"How did you get that so quickly?" Awaki thought she was being vague but Komoe knew the effect Touma had on women.

"I just don't know what to do." Awaki admitted, it was a dilemma and she turned to Komoe who was the closest thing she had to a mother figure.

The pink haired woman gave her a warm smile, "You don't want to lose Himegami, I understand but you're not sure how to react to your emotions. My advice is to talk to Himegami about it, so that the two of you can come to terms with it. It is better to clear the air. Himegami is a smart girl and I'm sure she can understand what you are going through. It's always better to get these things out, if you wait the more it will hurt when she finds out."

Awaki gave her a small smile, her words had calmed her soul even if just a little. Soon the red haired girl would depart and try to solve her problem. The teacher used her free day to go to the store and gather what she needed for the week. What she didn't know was that others had similar ideas.

"Touma! I'm hungry." The nun Index told her guardian.

Touma sighed, "Fine let's get something to eat in a restaurant today for lunch. Then we'll start shopping for tonight's dinner."

The nun cheered. Beside them was Itsuwa who had tagged along for this shopping trip. The day was sunny despite being fall and it just felt like a good day to be out. The small group walked down the street looking into the restaurant windows to decide where to eat. Soon enough they found one restaurant that wasn't too expensive to eat at.

Kongou and Kuroko found themselves in District 3 after days of searching. It turned out the woman they were looking for was staying in one of the hotels. Kongou had to talk to a lot of people in-the-know before someone finally gave her the right number to make an appointment. Neither knew exactly what to expect but they definitely didn't expect to be lead into a fancy suite. They certainly didn't expect the find a woman in her late twenties wearing sweats cuddled under a kotatsu. She was a tall woman with dark wavy hair, tanned skin, and olive colored eyes. She smiled broadly under the table.

"Hello." She smiled at the two girls. "Join me if you like."

"Are you Carina Rossi?" Kongou asked.

"That's me." Carina told her. "I'm sorry, I should get up to greet you but I just discovered these things and I can't make myself get out of it."

Kuroko and Kongou sat down and Kongou continued to talk, "You're Italian, are you not?"

"I am."

"You speak Japanese surprisingly well."

"Yes, in college I spent a lot of time abroad including here in Japan. It turns out I have a knack for languages." She cracked her neck. "But you didn't come to see me about that. From the phone call we had you said you had problems with love."

"Well," Kuroko was a little timid to share but she still started to speak. "I have always loved my Onee-sama but recently this … man has started to move into my heart as well."

"I see." Carina gave a thoughtful nod.

"And in my dreams. Suddenly I find him holding me whenever I dream. He caresses me and then we started doing lewd things. Lewd, intense, fun things-" At this point Kuroko started to get far too graphic and detailed.

Kongou went pale at the descriptions. Carina finally stepped in. "OKAY! I think it get it."

"Is there something you can do for her?" Kongou raised her fan to hide her blushing face.

"I love love." Carina explained. "I love finding that connection for people. The greatest joy in my life is helping people find that supreme happiness. I will do some pretty amazing things to make that connection for people."

"What exactly do you do, anyway?" Kuroko asked her.

"I do a lot of things. I run personality profiles, I make connections, I talk to people, I help people sort out their emotions, I set up events for love to flourish, I even plan out dates sometimes and if you are the sort for it I will get you a love charm. To put it bluntly I do what I think I need to do for the person and the situation."

"And what do you think of this situation?" Kuroko asked her.

"You're young and this is the time that girls discover what exactly they want." She gave her a warm smile. "So if you are willing to talk I'm willing to listen. Maybe I can help sort out your feelings. Then we can see what I can do. So if you are up to it I can make some tea and we can talk. I won't even charge you for talking."

Kuroko didn't understand it but her words were kind and compassionate, so much so she felt she could trust her. "I think I can do that.

"

Kongou smiled, happy that she could help her friend.

"So tell me." Carina forced herself up to make some tea. "Who is this boy you've been dreaming about?"

"He's something unique." Kuroko admitted. "His name is Touma Kamijou." Carina flinched at the name and Kuroko noticed it. "Do you know about him?"

She gulped and took a deep breath before she spoke, "I've heard of him."

Back in the restaurant the trio finished their meal, well Index insisted on more but that would bankrupt them. As they were getting to leave Touma's phone rang, the thing had seen some damage in the last fight but still managed to work.

"Hello." Touma answered it.

"Kamijou!" The voice was the familiar voice of Tsuchimikado. His voice was serious and panicked, so much he didn't call him by his usual nick name.

"Tsuchimikado, what's wrong?"

"Are Itsuwa and Index near?"

"Yeah-"

"I don't have time to explain the whole thing." They could hear the spy yelling and both girls leaned in to hear the phone call.

"Listen! An alchemist has entered the city. This alchemist is called Charles De Leon and he's stolen items from the Vatican, Zurich School of Alchemy and the Anglican Church."

"What's happening?" Touma couldn't help question the situation.

"He worked for the Vatican Church, he was doing some work with Astronomy and a few weeks ago he snapped. The next thing anyone knew he stole two grimoires."

"Which ones?" Index found it was her turn to question.

"De Mineralibus and the Concordance."

Index looked confused, "Those both were written by Albert Magnus a renowned alchemist and Catholic bishop, both deal with alchemy and divination through astronomy."

"Yeah, and after that he stole tools and spiritual items from Zurich. Then he came over to London to steal more spiritual items, books and notes from the library. Stiyl was sent after him and he's chased him half way around the world to Academy City. We thought he was just trying to get power and he was trying to hide in the city but that's not the case." He paused to catch his breath. "We found the room he rented and his notes and he's after something else."

They all turned white when they heard what he was really after.

The red haired magician had followed the alchemist into the city. He had found himself in the underground mall following the alchemist. Now all he had to do was capture him and take him back to London to pay for his crimes. It was supposed to be simple, so simple he didn't need to get Touma or Index involved. He'd been managing to keep tracking him after he got into a crowed area. At the moment Stiyl just had to keep it up until the time was right. He wanted to get ahead of him and set the runes to disperse people and take him out. It seemed simple enough, the alchemist wasn't known to be powerful but had showed enough skill to evade him so Stiyl still had to be careful. He pulled out a cigarette and ignited the tip before he took a long drag from it.

"It's you." Stiyl felt a tug on his robes and looked down to see Komoe. "You're that priest and you're smoking." Komoe didn't hesitate to take the cigarette from him and stomp it out. "You're far too young to be smoking these."

Maybe it was his fortune that happened to place her right then and there.

"There you are." Charles De Leon spoke his eyes set on his target.

"Damn!" Stiyl hissed out being spotted by the person he was supposed to be tailing. He quickly got in front of the small teacher. "Charles De Leon, surrender now before anyone is hurt."

"Oh, and be dragged into the Tower of London? I think not." He set his cold tired eyes on the magician. "Not when I'm so close."

The flame magician drew out his rune covered cards and to respond the alchemist took out a small green stone from his pocket. The alchemist wore a shabby brown suit, and most people would have thought he was a homeless man but at the moment he had more money than he knew what to do with. Stiyl quickly formed a sword made of flames ready to attack and to intimidate. The people around there were used to strange sights in that city and so they were not particularly surprised by a flame sword, they did take it as their cue to get out of there though.

The alchemist just gave him a smirk, "They sent the wrong person to find me." Holding out the stone he started to focus his mana into it, "Transmute oxygen into hydrogen."

Komoe moved away with the others and was far enough away to see what was unfolding. The small stone glowed and the air around it trailing towards the sword started to ripple. Then there was a reaction. The air ignited, causing a huge explosion that shook the mall. Stiyl's own sword exploded, setting him on fire and hurling him backwards. The alchemist gave a tired smirk as his body caught on fire and soon his entire form was covered in flames. Still the alchemist didn't scream or run, he just stood there calmly. His skin turned black and crispy and he just walked away. The flames continued to spread out reaching out for the small teacher. Komoe braced herself and closed her eyes expecting it to be the end when a strong arm wrapped around her. She opened her eyes to find Touma holding her as he held out his right hand. The flames rose around them only to die down.

"We have to run!" Touma picked her up and ran away from the flames.

"The priest! We have to go back for him." She told him.

"I'll get him. Stay with Itsuwa and Index." Soon they ran into Itsuwa holding a long spear and the little nun. Touma didn't explain anything but placed the small woman in the teenaged girl's arms before he ran back towards the flames. Itsuwa and Index were helping lead the other people from the flames. Komoe took a breath and started to do the same.

Touma ran back in and the flames died as soon as his right hand passed over them. Soon he found the magician burnt and beaten as flames climbed onto his body. Touma didn't waste a moment to use his hand to negate the magically induced flames. Touma checked his pulse and he was glad to find that he was still alive if unconscious. Stiyl had his own walking church that protected him, but it could only do so much. His exposed skin was burnt. His hands had been badly burned. There were still some flames lingering around them so the keeper of Imagine Breaker picked up the magician and dragged him away to get help.

Blocks away sirens started to make a lot of noise as the authorities went to check on the fire. In a shop that sold suits the one attendant on duty on that day was reading a magazine when someone entered.

"I need a suit." The man before him had unruly hair and tired eyes. That wasn't what the attendant noticed, his clothes were nothing more than ashes clinging to his body. Soot seemed to spin around him and he walked up to the counter. "I also need a pair of shoes." He coughed and a poof of smoke exited his mouth.

The attendant was in shock. "H-how are out planning on paying for that?"

The alchemist dropped a shoe onto the counter, a shoe made of solid gold. "This should cover it and a sizable tip for you if you bring me a bottle of water." Charles De Leon started to make his plans as he looked at his undamaged hands.

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**Authors Notes: Okay, another chapter and the start of the magic arc. Next chapter well see why this alchemist is so dangerous and what he is after. Some characters of the science side will find out about the magic side. Stuff will happen. I'm not sure when I'll get to writing the next chapter I was supposed to start a job like two weeks ago and it looks like they finally sorted things out for tomorrow so let's see. Also I just got Pokemon x so there is that to distract me. If anyone else got the game pm me with you 3ds code and I'll give you mine. It looks like the pokemon games just take the friends code like that. Anyway leave a review if you like. Thanks to my beta reader icefriend. And if anyone can spot the anime references in this chapter feel free to let me know.**


	10. Chapter 10: Philosopher's Stones

**Twist of Fate**

**Disclaimer: I do not own a certain magical index, it's characters or it's elements.**

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Chapter 10: Philosopher's Stones

_The magician named Stiyl was standing before a certain unfortunate boy's dorm. Index was bleeding on the floor and all Touma wanted do was protect the girl. In reality Stiyl wanted to save the girl but he found himself playing the villain. Is that why he unleashed the spell? The boy knew nothing of magic but he unleashed a spell that made flames wash over the boy. As he took out a cigarette the magician couldn't help but think that was a little much. Did he just not want anyone else to save her? It was not like he thought anyone could actually save her from the terrible burden she carried. Still burning the boy to death was too much. As he looked back at the flames he saw something. He couldn't make out the shape but the flames started to part for it. It looked like the boy but his eyes were shrouded by darkness as his hair fell over his eyes. An eerie outstretched smile spread across his face, his sharp incisors flashed as if it belonged to a hunter about to pounce on its prey. That was when Stiyl saw it, the boy's right hand was in fact not a hand but a large growling dragon's head. The dragon opened its mouth and the flames swirled around and moved towards the magician. He couldn't react in time and the flames jumped over his body. The flames spread over him and he screamed in searing pain._

Stiyl jolted up in bed. His eyes fell upon the spiky haired boy next to him. Then he realized he was in a hospital room and Index and Itsuwa were there. The red haired 14 year old found his hands and arms wrapped in bandages along with some on his face and other parts of his body.

"Stiyl." Touma was the first speak. "Are you all right? The doctors here treated you and gave you some pain killers."

The magician sighed, he didn't like the idea of being treated by science but he welcomed the relief from the pain. "What happened?"

"The alchemist did something."

"He held out a stone and said to transmute the oxygen into hydrogen."

Index chirped up, "I was afraid of something like that. He had accesses to two grimoires that belonged to an alchemist."

"Yes, but we found them in London." Stiyl pointed out as snarled at the pale blue hospital gown he wore.

"That's what Tsuchimikado called us about. He couldn't reach you." Touma added.

"My phone was broken when I was tracking the alchemist through Hong Kong."

"Tsuchimikado" Touma began. "He said that the alchemist is more powerful than he expected. From what the notes he found said, De Leon found a way to get the knowledge from the grimoires, that and he's found a way to create a series of stones to empower himself. An incomplete philosopher stone set."

"But that is not all." Itsuwa told them. "Charles De Leon has come to Academy City with a target in mind." Itsuwa paused as she hesitated with the words. "He has come for Komoe."

"What about me?" The small teacher entered the room in time to hear her name. She had left to get drinks for everyone and as she returned she almost dropped the drinks hearing her name mentioned.

No one intended for her to hear that and they were all a little at a loss for words.

"Kamijou," The small teacher looked at her students. "What is going on?"

"It's nothing." Touma tried to wave her off.

"Touma!" She looked angrily at the boy. "When you and that priest came to my apartment the first time the roof was blown off. Then you both showed up just in time to save Himegami's life. Then today I saw him produce flames and then they were used to create an explosion. Pyrokinesis is my field of study and I have never seen anything like that. It looked like the air had gotten much more flammable all of a sudden. I don't claim to understand everything that is happening but I do know I heard my name. I know that I'm somehow involved in all this. So don't you dare stand there and just lie to me."

Itsuwa was the first to break, "We don't understand it either. The man that attacked Stiyl has come for you, to use you for some sort of ritual or spell."

She blinked her pink eyes, "Spell?"

Komoe knew for certain magic was real, with Index's help they had conjured something like angel in her room and later she herself had used that same ritual to save one of her students. Still it was a world she didn't fully understand.

"What kind of spell?" Komoe couldn't help but ask.

"We don't know yet." Itsuwa explained. "The informant is working on that."

"It doesn't really matter." Stiyl spoke up. "De Leon will come after her and we have to make sure he doesn't get her. When he makes his move we will have to be ready to capture him." Stiyl spoke as if she wasn't there. The magician started to get up but groaned in pain.

"No, you can't go anywhere, you're not in any condition to move." Komoe told him.

Itsuwa started to go through her bag, "I can perform a spell that should heal your wounds but I can't replenish the energy you lost. You will still have to rest."

"Fine! Do it." Stiyl told her.

"Touma, you have to leave." Index told him. "Your right hand might interfere with the spell."

Touma nodded and left the room. Komoe watched in silence as Itsuwa gathered ordinary items for the spell.

Charles De Leon was now wearing a common black suit. He didn't care for style he just didn't want to stand out. He found himself next to a fountain in a park as he splashed water on his face. His skin still hurt, it felt like he was still burning, he knew that the heat that he felt was just in his mind but he still had the urge to put out the flames that he thought were touching his skin. He saw his reflection in the water and he looked healed but the phantom pains would persist for hours. He had learned to cheat injuries and had been doing so for a while so he was used to the pain to some extent, but it still hurt. He splashed some more water onto himself trying to cool down. He would have to move soon to finish his plan. He looked up at the afternoon sun and knew his time was running out.

Touma had retreated to the hospital lobby when his phone rang, "Hello."

"Kami~" The spy rang out from the other side. "Did you find Komoe?"

"Yes, she's fine."

Tsuchimikado sighed on the other end, he was truly glad to hear his favorite teacher was safe. "Did you manage to beat that alchemist?"

"No," Touma admitted. "He managed to escape after he set Stiyl on fire."

"What?"

"From what I can tell he changed the air into something that caught on fire much easier." He assumed that Komoe would scold him for his poor understanding of chemistry.

"Yeah, that's bad."

"Tsuchimikado, what's going on? Why does he want Komoe?"

"We're still trying to find out ourselves. De Leon broke into the library here and we went after him but he's been a step ahead of us. I'm in his room right now. A room he rented here in London. We have his notes but Alchemists are an annoying lot and they always encrypt their notes." Tsuchimikado looked over to a table were Orsola and Sherry Cromwell were looking through the notes. "We did manage to find out something though."

"What?"

"All bad news I'm sorry to say. Stiyl didn't know how strong he really was. He took the knowledge of two grimoires. One probably should have killed him but he took notes from our library to get a ritual from a Chinese Alchemist. This ritual manages to cleanse his chi so the corruption that grimoires did was purified."

Touma didn't like the idea that someone with the power of two grimoires was running around the city. "Is that all?" He hoped that was as bad as it got.

"Nope. It turns out he stole the tools because he had gotten some notes written by Albert Magnus himself. From we can figure out it allowed him to create something like a philosopher's stone."

"Wait, I heard of that."

"I bet you did. A certain book and movie made them famous in the modern science world. I'm sure that writer is actually a witch, her spells are a bit basic but they work."

"What about the stone?" Touma tried to get back on topic.

"Right. Albert Magnus could never actually make a working philosopher's stone but according to the notes we found he had an idea. The only reason he never did it was because he lacked the tools to actually do it."

"But now those tools are around."

"Bingo, Kami~" The spy said with song in his voice. "That was why he took a trip to Zurich. From what I can tell he actually managed to make the faulty stones when he got the grimoires. Every stone in his set allows him to do something different, and I did figure out one of the stones abilities…."

"I'm not going to like this."

"No, you're not. Two things the stone was supposed to do were to turn lead into gold and make the elixir of life. These faulty stones can manage something like that, he used them to make an elixir that keeps him from dying."

"He's immortal?"

"Not really, more like he'll just heal from any injury. He still will age, so no eternal youth to go along with it."

"Why does he want Komoe?"

"I'm not sure, that part we still haven't decoded. He has photos of her, her address, a picture of her car, the school, her daily routine and a lot of other stuff. This level of stalker would creep Aogami out. Whatever he's planning, it's not good."

"How can you be sure?"

"Kamijou, to take in the knowledge of a grimoire, a single book, could kill him before he had a chance to use the purification ritual. It was a battle of will and even after coming out of it he went again. The only thing that allows someone to push through that kind of thing is sheer desperation. If you're desperate you're dangerous and I don't want to think what someone like that would do to our cute teacher. Kami, protect her. I'll do everything I can on my end and look out for you but you have to do something too."

"I'll make sure she's safe."

"That's the hero I know. If you keep talking like that you're going to win the heart of our loli teacher."

"Shut up." Touma snarled at his phone.

Touma sighed as the line went dead. Before he could even say his trade mark catch phrase Stiyl, Itsuwa, Index and Komoe raced out of there grabbing Touma along the way. After Stiyl changed clothes and was healed they left before anyone could ask questions.

Back at the now well scourged mall Anti-Skill was examining the area while Judgement asked for eye witness reports.

Uiharu was back working as her suspension was up and Kuroko was called into duty, leaving her appointment with Carina until later. Saten and Mikoto tagged along to check on the destruction and Konori was there to help with the witness interviews.

"So can you tell us what you saw?" Uiharu questioned a tall high school student.

"A lot of weirdoes. A hobo got into a fight with this red haired guy wearing priest robes."

"Priest robes?" Kuroko was more than a little skeptical.

"Yeah, that guy got blown up but then this guy pulled him out of the fire. The fire didn't even touch him, weird spiky hair kid."

"Spiky hair?" Konori and Mikoto both jumped on that description.

"Yeah, there was a big breasted girl who was carrying a spear there too."

"A spear?" Saten spoke up confused as to why anyone would have a spear.

"Oh, and there was a small girl in a white nun outfit."

"Nun outfit?" Uiharu couldn't help but think of someone she met recently.

"Yeah, they showed up right before the explosion went off. The spiky haired boy ran into the explosion and saved a small pink haired girl before he saved the priest."

"Wait, a pink haired girl?" Yomikawa spoke up as she walked away from the crime scene toward the witness.

She might not suspect anything from a vague description of a pink haired girl but there was also the spiky hair description. She couldn't help but assume that her friend who looked like a pink haired girl got involved with a certain unfortunate boy. She reached for her cell phone.

In a small restaurant Stiyl took the batteries out of the phones. "We can't let him trace us. We don't know what he's capable of." After Touma explained the situation he knew he had to be careful.

"I don't think he can hack computers." Touma pointed out.

"No, but in this city he could bribe someone. He got into the city by bribing the crew of an airplane to let him travel without reporting him. He bribed them with a dumpster full of gold. I think he came up with a means to turn objects into gold like Limen Magna." Stiyl explained. "We'll turn your phone on every half an hour to check if anyone in London has anything."

"And what do we do in the mean time?" Komoe couldn't help but ask.

"We try and keep moving." Stiyl told her. "If he knows your apartment we can't go to anyone you know since it's likely he'll be aware of them too. And we can't go to any officers because they won't understand anything that is happening. We are on our own." He turned to Itsuwa. "Hiding in plain sight is your area of experience."

Itsuwa was the only one there that could hide in a crowd but if she pulled out the spear she had in her bag she'd stand out as much as they did. "We go somewhere with a lot of people, where we can hide. The shop district, there are a lot of people to help blend into and shops to hide in if we get spotted."

"Let's do that then." Stiyl wished silently that he had a cigarette.

It was easy to believe that Yomikawa along with the girls were all a little panicked when none of their calls went through. After their work was done they started to search the city but they wouldn't have to search long.

As the strange group walked by the shops they were forced to the walls when crowds of people started to run past them.

"What now?!" Touma yelled.

"Trouble." Index said, pointing towards the end of the road.

Before them were stone shapes, the size and basic shape of the alchemist, stumbling towards them. There were dozens of the figures each with one massive eye where the face should be.

"What are those?" Komoe asked.

"Homunculi." Index said drawing from the countless magical text in her head. "They are like golems, creatures made to look like humans but these are incomplete. These are only shaped out of stone and they don't have much of a mind. They must be sent out to track us down. These are quickly made out of stone without any real features."

"So like magical robots?" Komoe tried to wrap her head around the concept.

As Itsuwa started to assemble her spear Stiyl spoke, "We have to get out of here. It's likely they are connected to De Leon and he already knows we are here."

"You guys get out of here." Touma told them. "I'll keep them from chasing after you."

Itsuwa quickly leapt forwards and pulled out the parts of her spear and started to put it together. "I will not leave you. I will stay and fight with you."

"You don't have to." Touma tried to explain. "I think I-"

"No, I'm supposed to protect you against this sort of thing. I will remain by your side and fight." She was determined, almost frighteningly determined.

"…..Okay." Yeah he was a little scared, you would be too.

"I'm staying too." Index quickly joined in.

"No," Touma told her. "Stiyl is still weak and you can't do much but you can sense magic. You can use that ability to stay ahead of them. You can help Komoe more than you can help us."

Index hated to admit it but Touma had a point, she slunk her shoulders as she got ready to leave.

"We can't just leave you." Tears started to form in the corners of the teacher's eyes at the very thought of leaving her students.

"We'll be fine." Touma insisted as he leapt forwards and punched one of stone made men, making it fall into little more than grabble when it contacted his right fist.

One of the homunculus reached towards Touma when he had his back turned but Itsuwa acted quickly and plunged the spear into its eye. The stone structure fell apart with a simple twist of the spear. Komoe looked at her students and realized that her students were young but they could certainly handle what the world could throw at them. Komoe was a bit proud to know her students were that capable but like a mother hen she still worried for them. She had reason to be scared for them, those two were about to face an entire army made of stone, an army straight out of some legend. Komoe truly believed they could do anything but asking them to take on an army seemed a little much.

The small teacher was about to say something when lightning crackled down the road hitting the stone made men and shattering them.

"What kind of trouble have you gotten yourself into now?" Mikoto said from the other end of the street with sparks coming off her bangs.

"I didn't do anything!" Touma yelled back trying to wipe of some of the dust from his face. When the homunculi exploded it had covered his confused face.

"Right." Mikoto glared. "What is she doing here?" She pointed at Itsuwa. "And why does she have a spear? Who in this day and age has a spear?"

"Yomikawa!" Komoe gleefully cheered as she saw her friend along with the other girls coming their way.

The gym teacher in her full Anti-Skill armor said, "What kind of trouble have you gotten yourself into now?" Yomikawa didn't think that Touma was the cause of it but she knew that Touma often got himself into trouble and she had even witnessed a few situations herself.

"You even dragged a little girl into your mess this time!?" Mikoto yelled as she pointed to Komoe.

"I'm not a little girl." Komoe tried to reason with the girl.

"Don't worry." The Level Five Esper patted her head. "Misaka will help you."

"I'm not a little girl!" Komoe yelled flailing her arms. "You! You are that girl from Ichihanaransai! The unofficial visitor who snuck into the school!"

"Quiet little girl!" Mikoto blushed brightly as she tried to quiet her down.

"That's my teacher!" Touma shouted not willing to let anyone disrespect his cute teacher.

"What?! You have a preschooler as a teacher!?" Mikoto shouted.

"She's actually older than I am." Yomikawa told the girl in a dry manner.

Saten spoke up in an excited fashion, "She really is a teacher." Saten explained. "I had to take extra courses and she was the instructor. I looked into it later and found out she's one of the Seven Wonders of Academy City because she looks so young."

"Wow, is this the result of some sort of experiment to stop aging?" Uiharu questioned the teacher.

"What's going on?" Konori tried to get to the point. "What's going on here?"

"How did you even find us?" Touma shot back.

"We were looking for you after a witnessed described you at the attack in the mall and we couldn't get our calls through." Konori explained. "We were nearby when we got a call about stone men walking around here."

"It's happening all over the city." Uiharu said, pulling up the reports on her smart phone.

"And why have they stopped moving?" Yomikawa leveled her rifle at the unmoving homunculi.

"I didn't need them to attack any of you." Charles De Leon turned a corner and looked at them. "You with all your questions distracted them long enough for me to arrive here."

"Surrender now and stop your attack." Yomikawa turned her attention to the man.

"I can't do that but don't worry the attack on the rest of the city has already been stopped, I don't need them now that I found her." He pointed at the timid Komoe.

"Why do you want her?" Kuroko questioned.

"You're an esper, you can't possible understand anything to do with magic."

"Magic?" Kuroko scoffed. "Don't be ridiculous, there is no such thing as magic."

Charles bent down to the ground and pulled out a small stone from his pocket. The small stone was yellowish orange. He pressed it to the ground. "Earth and stone take the shape of man, rise up and follow my command."

The ground around them started to glow orange and crack. All of a sudden stone hands reached up from the ground and dozens of homunculi pulled themselves up from it, and then gathered around Komoe and the others.

"I'd rather avoid hurting anyone I don't have to." Charles stared them down.

"What are you?" Kuroko questioned him. "What kind of esper power is this?"

"It's not an esper power of any sort." Charles spat out. "Now surrender before I have to hurt anyone."

"Stop!" Komoe yelled. "I'll go with you but don't hurt anyone." She simply saw it as the right thing to do, if she could prevent anyone else getting hurt she was fine with sacrificing herself.

"No." A definite and loud no came from Touma."You are not giving yourself up."

"But-" She tried to talk some sense into him.

"No buts. You think giving yourself up to protect us from pain is what we want, it isn't. Komoe, you have done so much for me and so much for every one of your students. Each and every one of us loves you. If you get hurt or don't come back to class each and every one of your students would be hurt far worse. I wouldn't be able to walk back to class and look everyone in the eyes if I didn't try everything I could to protect you. So please let me do this. Don't give up, keep fighting so that you can go and see your students all smiling again. I promise you that if you don't give up I'll make it happen."

Komoe smiled with tears in her eyes, she was proud of Touma, she was proud of the man he was becoming. She was certain when he graduated, if he managed to, she'd be proud of whatever he would do. This touching moment was shattered when a blast of gold light struck his side knocking him to the ground. Normally Touma could have reacted quick enough to negate such an attack but with his focus on Komoe and his left side facing the attack he barely moved. His entire left side below his head had turned into gold and Touma slapped it with his right hand. With a sound like glass shattering his body returned to normal. Still Touma groaned out in pain.

Charles just said in an emotionless tone as he held a small gold stone. "I suppose having half your body stop working for even a second must hurt."

"Let's find out." Mikoto, outraged, flung a lightning spear at De Leon. The attack wasn't enough to kill him but enough to scourge his shoulder. He stumbled backwards but quickly got back on his feet, "Ow! I just got this suit." He ran his fingers through the newly created hole in his suit.

Before their eyes the wound sealed itself and flacks of burnt skin just fell off to reveal new skin. "Can we stop this? You can zap me, shoot me, hang me, stab me, beat my skull in and it won't stop me."

"That's impossible." Kuroko spoke what most of her group was thinking.

They believed that the man before them was an esper but he seemed to have more than one power and that was impossible on its own.

"I really don't want to get more people hurt." He pulled out a pouch from his pocket. The pouch had a small protective spell on it and inside it held his stones and a few charms he carried. He pulled out a small charm attached to rosary beads. "I pray that you hear my request. I ask you for the gift of a restful and deep sleep." The charm was nestled between his hands as in a prayer. Touma's right hand kept him from being affected and Itsuwa, Stiyl and Index knew enough tricks to keep the weak charm from working on them. The others dropped to the ground fast asleep. The homunculi started to move towards them and Touma got up and punched the nearest one into dust without wasting another moment.

"Don't waste your time." Stiyl told him. "Get the others, we're outnumbered and need the help." The magician really didn't want to admit he needed help but he found himself weakened and fighting a stone man with his hands.

Index was at a loss for what to do, homunculus aren't hard to fight but they were formed in a new way so it was a little tricky. While she went over the books in her head Index jumped on one of them and tried to bite its head. Touma rushed over to the others and started touching them with his right hand one after another, waking them by breaking the magic that put them asleep.

"What happened?" Yomikawa asked trying to get up to speed.

"I broke the magic spell on you and now we're under attack."

She didn't know what to make of the magic part but certainly got that they were under attack. Yomikawa picked up her rifle and used the bullets to rip the homunculi apart. The others quickly fell in line as Itsuwa continued to attack the homunculi, Mikoto let loose several lightning spears to shatter them and Kuroko quickly grabbed one of the homunculus and teleported it above another and let them crash into one another. Then she noticed how Touma was fighting and got distracted and one of the homunculus managed to knock her out. Uiharu and Saten struggled to fight the homunculi, they didn't have much luck but the homunculi weren't that intelligent so they mostly just drew them into the line of fire that Yomikawa provided.

During the fight Konori had gotten cornered and Index noticed her, Index realized something then, "The eye. Attack the eye. It's mostly animated stone but the eye is the part that has been most altered and thus most unstable."

Konori really didn't understand what she said but landed a punch on one of the homunculus right on the eye and to her surprise it cracked. Cracks formed around the eye and started to spread before it fell to bits.

Touma continued to fight off the homunculi as best he could only armed with his right hand. Touma was determined to protect everyone so despite getting a little roughed up in the process he never wavered.

"Stop!" A voice yelled out.

That was when they noticed that Komoe had gotten away from them and went over to the alchemist. "Please stop." The homunculi all stopped by a silent command from the alchemist. "I'll go with you but just promise you won't hurt them."

"No!" Touma tried to say but found himself grabbed by the homunculi as did everyone else. "I can stop him." He pleaded with her.

"I do believe in you, Kamijou." Komoe explained. "I just can't let any of you get hurt for my sake."

Touma refused to accept that answer and frantically used his right hand to shatter the homunculus that grabbed him but more sacrificed themselves to hold him back.

The alchemist walked over to a building and held a small green stone. "I can't let you stop me. I don't want to hurt anyone but I refuse to die. Transmute carbon, iron and cooper into sulfur." The surface of the building started to ripple and the smell of rotten eggs started to spread in the air and that was when the building started to creak. "Free chemistry lesson: elements like sulfur are called non-metals and are rather brittle. If you take random components from a building and replace them with sulfur what do you think will happen?" He didn't wait for Touma to answer. "Here is your choice: follow me or use your right hand to undo that and stop a building from collapsing on everyone here." The alchemist ran off with the small teacher.

Touma, infuriated, escaped from the homunculi and quickly raced to the building. He wanted to go after Komoe but he didn't know if there were people in the building and he wasn't sure the others could escape the fall. So with all his strength he punched the building and a loud unnatural sound rang out as the building settled. As he looked around he hoped to catch sight of his pink haired teacher but there wasn't any.

In London the magic side worked hard to decipher the codes on Charles De Leon's notes.

"Ah!" Orsola let out. "I found it. The ritual!"

"What is it?" Tsuchimikado asked.

"It's a recipe for soup. It looks good. Maybe it needs a little salt though."

Tsuchimikado sighed as he face palmed. There wasn't much hope.

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**Authors Notes: First off special thanks to my beta reader icefriend. I'm struggling with a cold so I don't know when I'll update. This cold is kicking my rear. Anyway I hope you like this chapter and are enjoying the story so far. The next arc will be focused on a certain mental out so there is that to look forwards too. I'm going to try and rest so leave a review in the mean while.**


	11. Chapter 11: Eternal Dream

**Twist of Fate**

**Disclaimer: I do not own a certain magical index, it's characters or it's elements.**

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Chapter 11: Eternal Dream

"So magic is real?" Saten tried to summarize Index's explanation of the history of magic and idol theory.

"Yes," Index replied. "That's what I've been saying."

Index was answering the questions about magic that Yomikawa, Saten, Uiharu, Konori, Kuroko and Mikoto had. Mikoto had seen magical things before but had never been given an explanation, and up until now was only able to explain them in terms of science.

"So could I learn magic?" Saten asked hopefully.

Index shook her head. "No, you can't."

"Why can't I?" Saten said, her hopes dashing.

"Magicians are people with no talent."

"I don't have any." Saten joked.

"There are setbacks in life. You may fail in saving a loved one from an incurable disease or end up killing someone you care about. You have to fail so much that you try and overcome the laws of physics. People who are satisfied with themselves will just stay where they are. People who rely on the supernatural power of magic have reasons leading them to do so. People have to be desperate to gain that kind of power." Index paused to let the words sink in. "There are exceptions, people like saints who are born with magical power. There are also people who are raised in magical communities, cabals and families with long histories of using magic who are born and live in that world."

Saten had been through a lot to gain an esper ability and had failed, she had even ended up using the level upper to try and gain that power. She still wanted her efforts to add to something yet she liked herself, she liked the friends that she had made, and she had never lost anyone or anything to that extent.

"Plus if you went to the power curriculum program you really can't." Index added.

"Say what?"

"Espers can't use magic. Their bodies have been changed so much that if they try to use magic it starts destroying their bodies."

Trying to focus the conversation into something helpful Yomikawa asked a couple of questions, "And magic is real? And no one has noticed anything?"

"Well, magic can corrupt people. For the most part it is prohibited, but organizations around the world are set up to use magic against those who misuse it. They also seek to keep it from the public so no one panics but things have happened. In London the princess gained a powerful spiritual item and used it to overthrow her mother."

"Wait, that was really magic?" Kuroko blurted out.

"Yes, I was there along with Touma. Other things happened around here too. There was the magic that was used by Stiyl and Kanzaki. There was that alchemist who tried to do something to Himegami. There was the time that Sherry Cromwell let that golem into the mall. Vento of Front using that spell to knock everyone out in the city. Oh, and there was that magician that tried to kidnap me to save the women he loved."

"And the city doesn't know anything about this?!" Yomikawa asked, outraged that a few of those attacks had left people hurt and she hadn't known that they weren't dealing with espers.

"Some people do know. The church I work for talks to the city leaders, well from what I can figure out, they at least let in magicians here to deal with those that sneak in. There is a balance that has to be kept. If the balance is not kept things like World War Three will happen again."

They were all silent as they realized how big the stakes could get, the war had left a lot of damage that still had yet to be repaired.

"And he was there for all of them?" Mikoto questioned as she pointed at Touma.

"Yes, for better or worse he gets pulled in time and time again and ends up stopping them."

Touma was talking on the phone with Itsuwa and Stiyl next to him.

"What do you mean soup?" Touma asked Orsola.

"It's a recipe for soup." She told him again.

"How is that going to help?"

"It doesn't unless you have the cypher."

"What cypher?" Stiyl growled.

"Well, no one would code a soup recipe. The recipe is a code for a ritual for an elixir of some sort. Each ingredients stands in for an ingredient that you need for an elixir. Once you swap them out you have the recipe for the elixir."

The three stared in silence, finally Touma said, "Why didn't you just say that?"

"I just did."

"Never mind. What is the elixir for?"

"I don't know. Without the cypher I can only guess what it does. All I know is that it must be prepared by the light of a setting sun when you add the chicken. I think your friend is the chicken in this recipe."

They looked at the sun to see they had about hour before it set.

"Can you tell us more?" Itsuwa asked. "Anything that might help locate them?"

"No, I'm sorry. It just needs to be in an open area with the sun out." Orsola apologized before handing off the phone.

Tsuchimikado on the other end spoke, "Kami, I'll do everything I can on my end but you will need to find her on your own. I will say something. We have looked through the notes and well…. It looks like De Leon found the notes belonging to Albert Magnus. Magnus didn't put the spell to make a true philosopher's stone in the grimoires because it takes people to make, a lot of people, sacrificed to make one stone, and he didn't want to be responsible for so many deaths. The process to make the smaller stones makes them less powerful and less all-purpose but it doesn't take lives. Still, that doesn't mean this ritual is so kind. Find Komoe quickly."

Touma held his phone in his hand. The phone was old, broken, and cracked but it was his. He looked around for answer when he realized it, "She said she believed in me. She has the answer. I've had the answer the whole time."

Awaki entered a fancy hotel lobby and spotted Himegami sitting on a chair. They decided to meet there and eat together since apparently Himegami just found out there was a contest she had won and the prize needed to be picked up there.

"So what did you want to talk about?" Himegami said as she got in a line for the front desk.

Awaki started out, "I think it would be better if we waited until after we eat."

"Is that Kamijou?" She pointed towards the door.

Touma had arrived with a group of people and Himegami was not pleased that most of them were women.

"Hey Kamijou! Itsuwa!" Aogami walked over to the unfortunate boy. "So did you get the email too?"

"Email?" Touma questioned his friend.

The dark haired and large breasted girl known as the Iron Wall, Fukiyose, came over with the blue haired boy, "It looks like everyone in our homeroom got an email about winning something and having to pick it up here and now."

"Is it a class prize?" Aogami questioned. "Maybe we can finally get answers."

One of the hotel clerks walked over to this strange group. He was a tall man with dark hair and a freshly pressed suit with his name tag pinned to the lapel. "How did you find this place?"

"What?" Was the general response.

The clerk's body started to twitch and twist frantically before it changed to look like the alchemist. "Sorry about that. Oh, don't worry this is another homunculus. I took some time and created a perfect set and I used it to replace the staff at this hotel. The staff is fine, just knocked out and put in a back room." At that moment every single member of the staff on the floor turned towards the group. "It took some time but it was worth the effort. I also took the liberty of bringing in the ones that I had attacking the city earlier." On cue the half-finished homunculi walked down the halls towards them. "Take this as your last warning. You cannot save your teacher but if you try this will end with a massacre."

The second he finished the sentence the copy of the alchemist found himself suddenly floating mid-air only to crash down into a coffee table that was in the middle of the hotel lobby, a red haired young woman staring daggers at him.

He quickly jumped to his feet, this was a fake body and a tough one at that. He controlled it remotely so he had no reason to worry. Suddenly he found a girl with a thick skull slamming her forehead into his, knocking him back down. Before he could react a blue haired young man grabbed his collar and punched. The homunculus cracked and fell to the floor. Another of the homunculus started to twitch and quickly took on the form of the alchemist, only to be surrounded by more students and each and every one of them looked more than eager to rip him apart.

Aogami said with an unusual serious expression plastered on his face, "Kamijou, I don't know what's happening but is Komoe in trouble?"

"Yes, she is." Touma told him.

"Then that settles it. Go save our small teacher, be the hero and we'll stay behind and deal with these things."

None of the students seemed to argue with the plan and started to tear through the homunculi. Himegami pulled out her 'magic wand' and set it for full auto blast and shoved it into the bell boy who had changed shape, a few sparks shot out before he was tossed towards a wall. Cracks formed around his body before he fell apart. The rest of the students were attacking the homunculi with the ferocity of jungle animals, protecting any hotel guest from the attacking homunculi. Touma was certain that Tsuchimikado had sent the email to make sure that their teacher was safe, knowing that each and every one of her students would fight to their last to make sure that she was safe.

"I better get in on this." Yomikawa pulled out her baton and went straight towards the homunculi.

"Here." Index gave Saten her charm. "I took it to fix it."

"Fix it?" Saten asked.

"The charm was a little off so I fixed the markings."

"Thanks." She looked down at the charm that her mother had given her.

They had all come along in the Anti-Skill truck that Yomikawa had borrowed and Saten took the chance to get a baton out of it. She took a breath before she rushed into battle.

Kuroko and Mikoto just stared at the carnage that the high school students were causing. Mikoto finally sighed, "I guess when in Rome." Mikoto started to fling lightning spears and Kuroko teleported into the fray.

Konori turned to Touma, "We have to find your teacher."

Uiharu checked on her phone, "Yes, she's here but I can't tell what room."

"No, I think I know where she is. There is only one place that you'll be sure to get the sun."

At that very moment the Alchemist flinched, letting the homunculi fight off the students on their own. They were on top of the roof when it had all started.

"Your students are animals." Charles turned to the small teacher.

Komoe gave him a knowing smile even though she was tied up in magically enforced ropes. "That's Kamijou, he's not the smartest student I have but he tries harder than anyone else. If he says he is going to do something he is going to do everything he can to keep that promise."

"How did he even find me?"

Komoe chuckled, "I've been a teacher a long time and I know better than to leave the answer on the board for everyone to see, but I know how to give the students everything they need to answer the question."

"What did you do?"

"I put the battery back in my phone before I surrendered. The priest said he was afraid of being traced with it. It took Kamijou a little longer than I thought to figure that out but he still got here in the end."

"Fine, let's start the ritual." He growled.

Before them were arcane symbols drawn onto the roof, it was meant to gather the last rays of the sun. In the center was a large tub filled with a variety of liquids.

Suddenly, with a whoosh, Touma appeared before them holding a spear.

"How did you manage to do that?" The alchemist questioned.

"Enough!" Touma shouted pointing the spear at him. "Surrender!"

Using a gray stone the alchemist pressed it to the roof, as blue sparks shot off a portion of the roof was yanked out and shaped into a sword. Soon the weapons clashed as both fought to gain an inch.

Suddenly the red haired Awaki popped out of the air. "There you are." Awaki quickly grabbed the small teacher and tried to teleport her out of there, only to find out she couldn't.

"The ropes aren't just restraining her, they also keep her in place." The alchemist said while dodging the spear attack.

"Give me a moment." With that she vanished again.

A moment later Konori showed up out thin air, sent by the teleporter to help. Konori went for the hand that De Leon was using to hold the sword and attacked it. One quick twist of his wrist and the sword was dropped. Charles stepped back, trying to assess the situation.

Index appeared with Awaki out of thin air.

Index looked over the ropes, "He really went overboard with this. It would be so much easier with Touma's right hand."

"Right hand." The alchemist understood then. "He hasn't bothered to negate anything. He isn't here, is he?"

Touma sighed, "No, he isn't." Touma dropped the charm she had been holding onto to drop the illusion and revealed herself as Itsuwa. Awaki just clicked her tongue, she had seen someone do something like that already and wasn't impressed. "We didn't know if you had started the ritual or not. So I was sent ahead of time to make sure you didn't harm her."

Konori then pushed over the tub of liquids, spilling the contents and erasing the symbols drawn in chalk. "Let's just make sure that doesn't happen anyway."

The roof top door swung open and Touma came running.

"Touma!" Index yelled at him. "The ropes."

Touma didn't hesitate to use his right hand to shatter the ropes, and Awaki wasted no time to teleport herself, Komoe, and Index away.

Finally it seemed it was time for the final battle.

"Three against one is a bit one sided." Charles said half heartily.

"Why did you do all this?" Touma questioned.

"What does it matter? The ritual has been disrupted and the sun is already set. I don't have time."

"Why did you start this?" Touma demanded answers. "Why did you do all this? You didn't want to hurt anyone." Touma explained. "Every time you attacked you gave us a chance to run away. I'm the only one you attacked directly and you knew I could negate it all. Stiyl you hurt but only because he attacked you and you didn't even try to finish him off. But why attack Komoe?"

"Because I had no choice." The alchemist admitted. "I needed her blood to finish the elixir I already took, the other half. I already can't die but she doesn't age. The ritual would have taken that attribute from her and given it to me. To live forever without aging."

"You deserve to live more than her?" Touma said, quietly outraged.

"No, maybe I don't but I have the means to survive that she doesn't. She will die soon enough."

"What are you talking about?"

"Weeks ago I was using techniques I learned to predict the future with stars. I saw what is coming. I saw you Touma Kamijou. I saw you in the middle of it and it starts in this city. It will spread out over the world and claim so many lives. I just moved to make sure I survived it. So I was willing to kill that woman who is already slated to die if it meant I would live."

"Are you going to try again?" Konori asked him.

"No, I don't think so. You won't let me. And she was the only one I could reach. I read the files on you, Kamijou. The English Church has files on you and those close to you. They had one on her and how even they don't know why she doesn't age. I paid some people to gather more information and I came for her. It seems like a wasted effort now." His voice was hollow and it seemed like he had given up on everything. He looked over at the last few rays of the setting sun. "I don't know if it would be enough to survive it. I just had to try. However this ends please tell her I'm sorry for troubling her."

"This will end with you in the Tower of London." Itsuwa held her spear to him.

"I think not." He pulled out all the stones he had once more. "Do you know what happens when I use every one of my stones together?"

The three teens looked at him and shook their heads.

"No? Neither do I." He slammed the stones together and the result was a flash of blinding light.

"We have to run." Touma grabbed Itsuwa and Konori's hand and pulled them away as quickly as he could. He pushed them through the door. "Keep running."

Once Touma was certain they were running he looked at the flashing lights. "You can stop this!"

"No, I don't think I can." Charles De Leon's voice was nervous as light flooded over his body. "I am sorry. I never wanted to be your enemy. I owe you a great thanks for stopping Fiamma of the Right, his plans would have been terrible and forever taint the good work the Catholic Church has tried to do. Still it will pale in comparison to what is to come."

"What is coming? What are you talking about?"

"I can't tell you. It all depends on you in the end and if you knew what was coming….." He took a breath. "You are better off not knowing. But may God's blessing fall upon you because you are going to need them. Now if you value your life I think you should run."

The roof started to shake and the light was spreading and Touma knew it was far too much for him to negate so he left.

"I am sorry. I am so sorry for what I have done. May God find the mercy to welcome me into his arms. May Saint Peter watch over my accession. Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely your goodness and love will follow me all my days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever."

Those were his final words. An explosion drowned out anything else he might be able to say. The light was so bright that some people swear it lit up the early night sky.

The entire top floor had been turned into gold and they found what looked to be a deformed gold statue of Charles De Leon. Touma tried to negate any power on the statue but found that nothing happened, it must have been too late to use his hand. There was the idea that it was a distraction so he could escape and the statue was just something he made at the last moment to throw them off. Index suggested that he might have tried to ascend into Heaven using the stones and leaving his body behind. Though she would admit that was only a theory and nothing firm had ever been established. Touma wasn't sure what to think, just that at the end De Leon didn't want him to see what was coming. They were certain that he was gone.

Still Stiyl took the statue so they could study it back in London.

At the airport as he was about to load it onto the plane he spoke to Touma, "I'm sorry."

"Sorry for what?" Touma asked.

"For attacking you. The first time I met you I tried to kill you. I had no right to and I apologize."

Touma had no recollection of that meeting and didn't know how to react, "Okay."

"Okay? Is that all you have to say?"

"Yes."

"Fine, good bye." Stiyl grumbled out as he went onto the plane.

He didn't say it but apologizing did seem to take a lot of weight off his shoulders. Komoe scolded her students for getting into a fight just for her sake, still she treated their wounds and scrapes. Later on in the night her entire class went to celebrate her safety. Yomikawa did end up having a long discussion with Komoe about her never telling her that magic was real. The girls wondered what would change for them with the knowledge of this other whole world beside theirs.

Konori had something else to think about. Before they left the hotel Index had took her to the side and spoke to her, "Konori, you seem really nice."

"Thank you, Index." Konori was grateful for the compliment.

"And I know you like him."

"…." Konori didn't have a reply for that.

Index looked away. "I don't know how it's all going to end but I wish you luck with him. He'd be really lucky to end up with someone as kind and pretty as you." With that she ran away.

Touma wondered what the alchemist meant when he said that something was coming.

Deep in the Academy City there was something unfolding. A group of Anti-Skill members were on the ground of an alley shuddering in fear. Suddenly one was kicked in the gut by someone wearing a thick black boot.

"Oh, it's cold and you are offering me your jacket? What a gentleman." She took his black leather jacket off him and put it on herself. "What do you think? Is this jacket me?"

She twirled on her heel and laughed, "Ha he he haw! It's going to be a fun night." She smiled contently at the night. She strolled down the streets content and assured that she was the most dangerous predator out on the prowl.

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**Authors Notes: Yay for foreshadowing. I've been leaving hints about the end of the story since the start and this is just the biggest one yet. The next chapter will focus on Misaki and Seria. It will have some character development moments for Index. Some shocking twist in the next arc. So until then I hope you enjoyed this chapter and leave a review if you would please.**


	12. Chapter 12: Nightmare Witch

**Twist of Fate**

**Disclaimer: I do not own a certain magical index, it's characters or it's elements.**

* * *

Chapter 12: Nightmare Witch

To start off this story we will go back to when Touma was still in the hospital after a certain run in with a researcher. Touma was actually working on his homework as he had nothing else to do but stay in bed as he healed. The doctor refused to let him go before the three days were up. Index had been sitting by his bed thinking for a long time in silence.

"Touma," She raised her voice. "What do you want for the future?"

"What?" Touma didn't understand the question. "You mean to eat? I can't cook right now. I think the hospital is serving soup today."

"No, not that, I'm not talking about food, " She looked him the eyes. Fed up she crawled onto the bed and climbed onto him. "Touma Kamijou, you fight and risk your life so much, but what do you really want?"

"I just want everyone to go home with their smiles."

"No, what do you want for yourself? You go through all this trouble and never ask for anything. But what do you want? Where do you want to be in ten years? At the end of your life what do you want? Don't you ever think about your future?"

"Have you been talking to Komoe or my mom?" Touma replied.

"No!" The little nun growled. "Is there nothing you want? Don't you care how your life turns out?"

Touma thought about it for a moment, he never gave the future a lot of thought. "I don't know. I don't know what kind of job I'll be able to get with my grades but …."

"But what?"

"My parents. I see them and they're happy. I like to think they're happy because they have each other. If there was something I'd like it would be to meet someone like that. Someone to share my life with. Someone that wouldn't mind sharing my unfortunate life. A nice girl to share my life with? Like this unfortunate Kamijou would be so lucky." He scoffed at the idea.

Index gave the boy a warm smile but her eyes started to tear up, showing the heart breaking pain she felt but tried to hide. This boy would give up everything to save a stranger and had tons of girls fawning over him but he didn't see it, he didn't understand how much he was loved. The only thing that he'd ask for was someone to hold his hand but he didn't believe he'd ever get that.

"I'm going to get something to drink." Index told him as she climbed off the bed and ran outside.

A moment or so later a blonde esper entered with a girl with long black hair.

"Ah!" Touma shouted in shock as he saw Seria his thoughts went back to the dream where she was dressed in a revealing maid outfit.

Seria moved closer to him and placed her hand on his forehead. "Well, you feel a little warm."

"Don't worry about it." Touma tried to remain calm.

"We brought you cookies." Misaki spoke for the first time since she arrived. "Freshly baked and everything."

"Thank you so much." Touma was very happy about the cookies, I mean who wouldn't be. They had cookies.

"Oh, if the cookies aren't enough maybe a kiss from me would heal you." Misaki leaned in closer.

Touma blushed wildly as ideas started to pop into his head, "I don't know if that's how I want my first kiss."

Seria and Misaki exchanged glances.

"What?" Touma questioned it.

"You've already had your first kiss." Misaki told him.

"What?"

"Well," Seria started off. "We were young."

"What happened?" Touma further questioned.

"We used to play together a lot when we were young. One day we persuaded you to play prince to our princess. And I was sleeping beauty and you were the brave prince that had come to wake me." Seria let him fill the rest.

"Yes, you two shared your first kiss." Misaki gritted her teeth in anger.

"Oh, you kissed him a moment later." Seria fought back.

"I kissed both of you and I can't even remember!?" Touma shouted.

Outside the room Index was waiting and had overheard the whole conversation. As much as she would want to think differently she was responsible for him loosing such memories. She decided if she couldn't bring back those memories than she would make sure he would be happy. She would pay for the pain she had caused him.

That brings us back to the present. There was a small ceremony being held to honor Judgment and Anti-Skill officers who did exceptional good work. Yomikawa and Konori were two who were being honored, although they both felt it was that it was partially to keep them quiet over recent events. The reality was that they both did a lot of great work and deserved it, and if they turned the award down people would ask questions. Index and Touma both were invited by Konori. As Index watched she smiled, she did think Konori was a kind person but this only proved what she thought about her being a person who strived to help people. That was why she thought Konori would be a good match for Touma. Index waited for her plan.

The next day Touma was called away and normally Index would make a fuss, but not that day. Itsuwa came over and Index stared her down.

"Is something wrong Index?" The young magician asked.

"No," the small nun said her tone unusually quiet. "Itsuwa, I think you're a very good person. You care about others and work hard at everything you do. I know you have a hard time expressing yourself when it comes to him but don't give up."

"Me and him?" Itsuwa blushed as she suspected that Index found out she liked Touma. Really, everyone had figured out she liked Touma except Touma.

"I know you like him and you two share a lot of values, like helping those that need help. So, I wish you all luck with him. Don't be afraid to tell him how you feel, he's an idiot with those things."

Itsuwa was so shocked by the words that she was hearing that she froze. Right then the phone rang.

Index picked it up, "Hello?"

On the other end was the maid-in-training Maika, "Hello Index. I know where she is going to be." The maid had been asked by Index to locate someone and she told her where she'd overheard the person would be.

"Okay, thank you Maika." Index said before hanging up the phone. She turned to the magician and said, "Itsuwa I have to go." She quickly hugged the older girl before she ran out the door.

Itsuwa was still far too stunned to notice, and Sphynx batted the girl's foot trying to get a reaction.

Misaki was at the hospital at that day, "I'm sorry there is nothing I can do."

She had been called in to help with a group of people, they seemed to be physically (for the most part) all right but they were in comas. They had been found in an alley that morning and would not respond.

The doctors known as Heaven Canceler turned to her, "Thank you for trying. I'm not sure why but their minds are locked."

"I'm not sure what is causing it either. It seems that their minds are going through nightmares over and over again. Something caused them such trauma that they can only focus on it, I tried to erase their last memories to reset them to the last moment they were alright but there is something blocking my Mental Out. Something has a hold on their minds."

The doctor pondered it for a moment.

"Oh, excuse me I have somewhere I have to be." Misaki excused herself.

Soon that girl found herself at the shopping district in the company of Seria.

"So we finally decided?" Seria asked the esper.

"Of course. My research ability is second to none and this is perfect." Misaki held her chest proudly.

"Put those away before it causes your weight to shift and you to topple over."

As the girls walked down the streets they were quickly confronted by a girl wearing white. She was out of breath like she had been running and she looked at them. They recognized her as Index, the girl that clung to Touma. Index had been told by Maika after she overheard that Misaki was going to meet someone there. They weren't her biggest fan but they tried not to show it. They didn't expect her to throw herself onto the floor and start crying.

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." Tears started to stream from her eyes as she kneeled before them bowing, even going as far as removing her habit. "I'm so sorry."

Misaki who didn't want to bring attention to herself, took a remote out of her bag and took control of the people who were staring at them and sent them away.

"What are you talking about?" Seria asked calmly.

"I know you know." Index said between her sobs. "I overheard you. You went to try to help Touma the day he saved me. You know he lost his memories because of me." Both girls were shocked to hear those words. "I just want to explain things. Every year my memory was erased by the church to keep me under control. They tricked my friends into erasing my memory every year, so I only have my memory from the year before and the last few months. I don't know what happened but when my memory was going to be erased Touma stepped in, and somehow he fixed it so that I didn't get my memory erased, but in the cross fire his memory got erased. I'm sorry. I know from the way you speak about him that you loved him, you loved him for a long time. It's because of me that he doesn't remember you. It's because of me that you lost him. I'm so sorry. There is nothing I can do that can make up for it. I know you have the power to change memories. I'll allow you to erase all the memories I have made. Set me to blank, I have instructions here." She pulled out a letter. "Send me to London and they'll take care of me and Touma will never have to know. Touma can be happy then. If it will make you feel better erase my memories." Index closed her eyes and braced herself. Suddenly she felt a sharp pain on her head. Someone had chopped her right on top of her head.

"Don't you dare." She opened her eyes to find Seria speaking as both girls glared.

"Touma fought to save your memories." Misaki said, "I would not erase them even if I knew it would make me happy." She gave her a handkerchief. "Now, don't cry. Touma fought, he always fights, to preserve people's smiles so you shouldn't cry after he sacrificed so much."

Index whimpered, "Aren't you angry?"

"Yes," Seria admitted. "But it won't change things. His memories are gone. Making you forget too won't change things."

"Why are you doing such a thing?" Misaki was suspicious.

Index looked up to them with big watery eyes. "Touma would be happier. It would be for the best."

"Now, I thought you liked Touma. Why would you give him up when you get to live with him?" Seria questioned the weeping nun.

"I do like him." Index confessed. "I like him a lot but Touma wants to have a happy life like his parents. He wants to fall in love and have someone love him back, and one day get married and I think one day maybe even have children." The girls blushed at the thought. "But I'm a nun, I have duties to the church that I can't give up and I can't be that for him. I want to make sure he finds someone and I thought it would be easier if I was gone. And you two girls might have a chance. You both care about him even after he lost his memories, you still talk about him with that same emotion in your voice. If he didn't give up his memories for me either one of you might already be dating him. I just get in the way." She sniffed her nose.

"Don't say that." Misaki said. "I doubt that Touma would have let you stay so long with him if he didn't care about you." She smiled at her. "I'll make you a deal, you help us with Touma and you can be our little honorary sister. So if either one of us ends up with Touma you can visit him as much as you want when you visit your big sister."

Index broke out a smile, "Okay, I'll help. But there are other girls that might make him happy. I won't hurt them and I might help them too."

"Every girl for herself." Sera smirked. "Nothing else is new." She smiled at the small girl and messed with her hair. "Now go home and wait for him to come back, to meet him with a smile."

"Thank you for being so kind." Index chirped as she started to make her way back to the dorm.

When Index was gone Seria questioned her friend, "Did you really mean all of that? Or was it some ploy to get closer to Touma?"

Misaki let out a sigh, "Yes, she reminds me of someone I knew, someone I lost. A victim of circumstances, who was manipulated and used, and she couldn't help any of it but tried to find some joy in this bleak world. Still if it helps me get closer to him so be it. How about yourself?"

"She's silly and thinks she knows what's best, that she understands this complicated world. She reminds me of my sister when she was younger."

They both agreed not to tell Touma about the encounter. Both girls continued on and a few minutes later they arrived at a store where they met Touma.

"You want to buy me a new phone?" Touma questioned them.

"Yes, I noticed at the hospital the shabby condition of your phone." Seria explained to him. "We found one that should survive even your hectic life."

Misaki held the new phone and smashed it on the table." Do you see? No damage."

"But that's too much." Touma insisted.

"Oh, don't worry." Misaki pulled him close to her. "I'm sure we can find a way for you to pay us back."

Not to lose out Seria moved close to Touma and pressed her body against his as well. Touma began to blush brightly as his heart raced. He didn't understand it but despite their playful teasing he felt comfortable with them. He thought it was something from his previous self that gave him such a strange feeling when they were close. He also failed to notice the clerk muttering that Touma was a lucky bastard.

The clerk transferred all the data in Touma's phone into his new one.

Elsewhere Index was going to the dorm but stopped on a bench to wipe her tears away. She was determined to help find Touma a good match.

"Index?" A voice said softly.

Index looked up to Konori. "Konori?"

"Is something wrong? You look like you've been crying."

"Don't worry about it." Index worked up a smile.

"If you say so. I have something I could use your expertise with, how about we talk while we eat. Are you hungry?"

Index eyes twinkled. "Yes please."

It didn't take them long to find a hamburger restaurant and Index to order some food, and by some food I mean enough to feed a large family.

Index happily gobbled hamburger after hamburger as Konori spoke to her, "So, recently a case has gotten my attention. All over the city people are being attacked but by the time we find them they all slip into comas. Anti-Skill managed to get to one victim before she slipped into unconsciousness today and she was muttering about monsters attacking her. The weird thing is that they found something like claw marks on a nearby wall. I was wondering if there was something magical that could be doing this."

Index looked at her thoughtfully for a moment, "There are a lot of spells and curses that attack people with magically created monsters, leaving people trapped in their bodies and facing their fears." She thought for another moment. "I might be able to narrow it down. Did they say something, a word or a name?"

"The girl said Kurosawa. She repeated it like a mantra before she passed out."

"Kurosawa!" Shocked voices said behind them.

Index and Konori turned back to see Himegami and Awaki eating lunch together and they both suddenly turned pale.

"What about that name?" Konori questioned.

They both looked hesitant to talk about it. Himegami choked down some food before she spoke, "At Kirigaoka Girl's Academy there was a rumor about a girl called Kurosawa."

"A rumor?" Awaki retorted. "More like a warning. There was a girl with a strange power at the school, and at a school that focuses on rare powers that's saying something."

"No one really understood her but everyone was terrified just by her entering the room." Himegami continued. "Eventually she was separated from the other students. Sometime ago she vanished, they found the researcher that worked with her in a room alone. The room was utterly destroyed and the researcher looked like she had been attacked by a wild animal."

"It's said that just being near her will drive you crazy." Awaki added. "That if you are unlucky enough to run into her she will leave you in your own nightmarish hell."

"They called her the Nightmare Witch." Himegami told them worried. "They say if you make her angry, there is no place you can hide, and there's no place you can run. She will find you and when she's done she will make you wish for death."

Awaki looked on and with upmost seriousness, "Don't try to find her if you value your lives."

Konori didn't know what to think, "The girl that was attacked was from Kirigaoka."

Index wondered if a witch could have found her way to Academy City and was now out attacking people.

Near Tokiwadai dorms Touma found himself walking between two lovely girls. Taking his phone Misaki pulled Touma close, so close his arm was practically buried in her breasts. "Smile." And with that she took a picture of them. "That is a much nicer photo for you to see when I call you."

Seria took the phone next and took a picture of herself when she pulled Touma close to her. As she looked through the photos about to set up the picture to pop up when she called she found something, "Why do you have a picture of yourself with the royal family?"

"Ah, that's a long story and I'm not sure why they wanted to take a picture." Touma told them as he scratched his head.

"You still haven't changed." Misaki smiled. "Even this, you still insist on walking us back to our dorms." They had reached the doors of her dorm.

They walked in where Misaki was about to say good bye when something happened, something most people would have expected. A bolt of lightning ripped through the air only to be negated by Touma's right hand.

Standing in front of the doors was Mikoto who yelled, "Idiot! What are you doing here? With them?!"

Kuroko was standing beside her speechless.

"MIsaka!" A cold harsh voice spoke out, a voice that belonged to the Dorm Mother. She pressed her glasses up and a sinister glare came off them. Everyone suddenly froze in place. "Why did you attack this young man?"

"He-" Mikoto tried to explain.

"What are you doing here?" She turned to Touma.

Misaki spoke up, "He's my friend. He was just walking me back here to make sure I arrived safely. We were just about to say good bye."

The Dorm Mother turned her glare on Touma and he felt as if his blood had turned to ice. "Is that true?"

"Yes ma'am." Touma said as politely as he could.

"Did I see you before? Yes, I think it was in summer you met Misaka in front of these dorms to take her on a date."

It was either the intense pressure he felt coming of the woman or his usual tendency to say the wrong thing but he continued to speak, "That wasn't a date. She just dragged me away because she wanted everyone to think I was her boyfriend so she could get this guy to stop following her. I even told her she should just be honest with him."

"So you two didn't break up and she holds some grudge against you?" She said eerily calm.

"No, we never really dated. I don't know why she holds a grudge against me. She usually attacks me for no reason anyway."

The Dorm lady turned her attention to the esper who looked ready to wet herself and kill the unfortunate boy. "Is what he is saying is true?"

"Well…."

"Answer me!"

"Yes, but it's not that I attack him for no reason. I just want a rematch with him. He never seems to try and he always blocks my attacks. He usually leaves before we finish or something comes up so we never settle it."

The woman glared at her. "I have been getting reports of you using your abilities all around town. It often results in something getting destroyed and reports have it involving a spiky haired boy. I was also informed by an Anti-Skill Officer today that you were seen at a high school during Ichihanaransai, sneaking in as unofficial visitor."

Mikoto backed away slowly cursing the big breasted gym teacher she was sure had told on her.

"You will be punished for those actions." The Dorm Mother informed her. "I fear that you won't stop your attack on this boy even if I punish you. So I say you settle this once and for all. Tomorrow the both of you will have your fight here at Tokiwadai. Misaka, I warn you that judging how the fight goes I will decided how harsh your punishment will be. Do you both understand?"

Both of them agreed by nodding, too afraid to say no. After Touma and Seria were dismissed Touma couldn't help but complain, "I can't believe I am being forced to fight another Level Five, such misfortune."

Words of the fight spread out but stayed mostly in the school. So the practice field was set up and a crowd of middle school girls gathered to watch this fight. It was mostly girls from that school but a few others were invited like Uiharu, Saten and Seria.

Seria and Misaki got ready to watch the fight and support Touma when Misaki's clique walked over to them, one girl move forward, "My queen, we know you like this Touma Kamijou. We wanted to let you know we support you fully. Any man brave enough to face Level Fives, go into a blaze to rescue a small girl and a priest has earned the right to have your attention. Just ask anything from us and we will be more than glad to assist you in winning his heart."

"Okay." Misaki said not sure how they found out or for the most part what they were talking about.

On the other side of the field Uiharu and Saten were talking to Mikoto. Saten started, "Are you ready to fight him?"

"I've been waiting for a chance to have a proper fight." Mikoto said, trying to sound more confident than she was.

Kuroko found herself talking to Kongou. "Is that him?" She raised her fan. "He doesn't look impressive at all."

"You'd be surprised." Kuroko shot back.

As Touma and Mikoto prepared to face off the Dorm Mother was to be the referee. "Ready. Go." With that the fight began.

A few blocks away from the Tokiwadai middle school, Index met up with Konori. They had traded number and when an attack happened she picked up Index. The area had been cleared and the victim had been taken to the hospital but Konori wanted to bring Index here to make sure no magic was involved.

Index looked over the area. "I don't know. I don't sense anything." She did find claw marks, scales and even blood.

"I mean she can't actually be a real witch, can she?" Konori asked. "That girl we were told about?"

"I don't know." Index replied uncertain. "A lot of people from the magic side seem to find their way here." That was when something caught her attention. "Are clouds supposed to move like that?"

Index pointed up to where a dark group of clouds gathered, moving strangely in one direction.

"No, I don't think it's a cloud." Konori stared in amazement and horror.

Back on the school grounds the fight was going as one would imagine. Touma had blocked a number of Mikoto's lighting spears. In fact Touma was putting less effort in this fight than his fight with Sogiita.

This all just made Mikoto angry, " Fight back, you idiot." She formed her sword of iron sand and slashed at him.

Touma jumped out of the way, "Why do you want fight?" He outstretched his arm and the sword dissolved back into sand.

"Why? You have a power yet you claim to be a level zero! You can't be a level zero after you did all this. I can't just let myself be beaten by a level zero like this. It's just so frustrating."

"I am a level zero. My right hand isn't an esper power, I was born with it. Whatever it is it's not part of the science side or magic side, it just is."

Mikoto, using her mastery of magnetism swirled the iron dust in the air and like a stream it moved towards Touma.

He reached out his arm for it all to be turned to normal. "What does it matter if I beat you? Why do you care? I beat other Level fives and they don't hold it against me. I negated number four's attack and she couldn't care less." She actually lost some sleep over it but didn't attack him because he was a friend of Hamazura. "So why is it so important that you beat me?"

Mikoto's face turned red as a feeling inside her carved away her heart. She barely understood it herself and she couldn't express it. She only reacted, sending a flurry of lighting spears at the esper. Touma rushed forwards negating each one as they came. Finally as if cornered Mikoto pulled out a coin. Those watching were all gasping, had the Railgun gone mad? Using such a powerful attack would certainly kill him. The Dorm Mother was about to stop her when Mikoto let loose the attack. The others only saw a bright orange beam of light racing towards Touma as the air around it cracked and boomed. Touma put his right hand in front and put his left hand behind it to help steady it and then the coin hit. The light vanished, leaving dust around them, the ground around Touma burnt, and the coin fell off Touma's palm. To their shock he had negated the attack as it were nothing.

"How many times have I told you not to use your railgun on me?!" Touma bellowed.

"What's the difference?!" Mikoto yelled at him. "You negate it like everything else."

"It's still scary when you fire it at me!"

"I've seen enough." The Dorm Mother stopped the fight. "Mikoto you lose."

"What?" She tried to argue.

"All your attacks failed to land. The only reason you haven't been beaten already is because Kamijou didn't try to attack you. He's barely trying to fight back, should he have tried to beat you he could have. It's clear to me he doesn't even want to fight you. Since he still managed to make all your attacks ineffectual I declare the battle in his favor."

The crowded applauded and cheered for Touma, most of them sided with him after seeing Mikoto use such a dangerous attack on him.

"You will be punished." The Dorm Mother spoke to Mikoto. "First off you are not to go see him again. I fear that you might try and start another fight."

"But-"

"No buts. I am aware you strive to be perfect in all your endeavors but you must accept that he's not someone you can overcome with sheer force. Then there is that matter that you used such a dangerous attack as your railgun on an individual, I fear that if your aim was off you would have killed him."

Mikoto looked over to Touma where girls were swarming him just to talk to him. Suddenly the air grew thick and the light of the sun was blacked out by the cloud. Someone was clapping, the crowd turned to the source of the sound to find a girl about 16 years old clapping. She wore thick black boot, black jeans, and a black leather jacket. Her long unruly black hair fell over her face, covering her eyes but a long thin smile was seen spread across her face.

"That was some fight." She said her voice eerily cheering, as she walked closer to them her body swayed left to right ever so slightly.

The Dorm Mother felt she was a threat and walked over to her, "Who are you?"

"Kurosawa, well, people sometimes call me by the Nightmare Witch but that sounds so silly." She said, her tone so carefree.

"How did you get in?" She asked her, she didn't seem like anyone's guest.

"The guard let me in. Well, he didn't stop me anyways. He was busy trying to get some bugs out of his skin." Her smile never wavered. She turned her attention back to Touma. "You're not afraid of me?"

"Why would I be?" Touma looked around and noticed the uneasy expressions on everyone's faces.

"You are unique. Everyone is usually scared of me. I don't really try but when I get near they get scared. I guess it's my power."

"What is your power?" Touma continued to ask.

"They never really gave it a name. They said they had never seen anyone with a power like it. I call it Fear Weaver. I can instill it and even shape it if I want."

"Stop it then." Touma told her.

"I really can't." She gave him a half shrug. "I don't want to anyway. Things are so much more interesting this way. I have to admit you are very interesting." She tilted her head sideways. "I can usually see people fears but I can't see yours. What are you? You can't be fearless. Oh, is it that hand of yours, the one you used to block all those attacks?"

Misaki was curious and pulled out one of remotes and pointed it at the girl. She wanted to know about the girl and why she was there. Misaki clicked the button and started to peer into her mind.

Kurosawa started as any other girl in Academy City without her parents as a child error. Her parents were scared of her and left her in the city to fend for herself. She went to classes like any other girl but no one wanted to be near her, the children feared her. Children acted like they usually did to things they feared, they ran from her or they attacked. Every day she found children beating her with sticks or throwing rocks at her. Every day she would end up in some dark corner crying and bleeding. Then one day a researcher found her and promised to help. The girl had been so alone for so long that this researcher was the spark of light in her dark world.

The researcher taught her to control her powers but then the experiments started. They drilled into her head and plugged electrodes into her. They brought other children there and asked if she could make them scared. They brought her the children that had attacked her, and that was when she learned she could pull out their fears. She could make them see their fears. She started to enjoy making them so scared. She liked being the one with power, the one that hurt them. Her powers grew stronger. People at her school whispered that she was a witch.

One day she overheard the researcher, they wanted to use her for a weapon. So one day Kurosawa showed her what she had learned. Using the researchers fears she showed her who was really in control. The researcher had been afraid of dogs ever since she had been attacked by one as a child. The researcher falsely believed that it was an illusion until the dog's jaw wrapped around her arm. As the wild beast tore into her the researcher learned that Kurosawa had learned to use her AIM field to shape their fears and to make them solid. The stronger the fear the stronger she could make them.

Misaki watched the memories tell the story to her. She was appalled seeing the girl laugh as she order the dog to rip into the researcher. The blood spilled over her face and a thin smile crept under her long bangs. Misaki could feel Kurosawa enjoying the feel of the warm liquid, her own stomach was tied up in knots seeing such a sight.

In the memory Kurosawa turned to her, "Stay out of my head."

With that Misaki snapped back to the real world.

Kurosawa turned to Misaki. "You've been playing in people's heads. Don't do that. Those comas are my work. I found that if I leave them like that I can use their fears any time I want. No matter how long ago I met them or how far away they are. I can't have you messing with my connections."

Touma moved in front of Misaki, "Leave her alone."

Kurosawa's smile never faded, "Oh, I like you. You as the big brave hero. That gave me tingles. Let's see how you stand to fear." She snapped her fingers.

The air wavered and suddenly a large black dog manifested before him. Its mouth full of foam as it let out a loud bark. The dog jumped at Touma only to be touched by his right hand and vanish with a crack.

"Stop it!" Misaki worked up her courage. "What do you want?"

"I want to make sure you don't interfere. That means taking you out of the picture."

The cloud above suddenly broke apart and moved downwards and as a buzzing sound filled the air they realized it wasn't a cloud. It was a swarm of large insects descending onto them. They bugs bit and scratched at the crow of screaming girls. Many used their esper powers to do away with some of them while other just ran. Touma waved his hand causing some of the bugs to vanish as he confidently walked towards the girl who cause all of this.

"Be careful, I'm quick." Kurosawa warned him.

He should have listened as she punched him in the gut causing all the air in his lungs to escape. Kurosawa didn't let up as she rammed her knee into his face, knocking him onto the ground. She pushed him onto his back before she began. She jumped onto his arm and the sickening sound of bones cracking was heard. She jumped up and down again and again. Those who heard this didn't know what was worse, the sound of his bones shattering, Touma's scream in pain or the laugh that Kurosawa made as she stomped on his hand and arm. Kurosawa laughed so wickedly that she didn't notice her insects vanish as she stomped on his hand.

"Stop it!" Misaki yelled as Kurosawa got off Touma. She raised her remote determined to stop her. Misaki only got a glimpse at Kurosawa's mind but could tell her mind had become twisted, and it would make it hard to control but she would try.

"I don't think so." Kurosawa said with her ever present smile.

A large insect like monster appeared next to Misaki and its long tail slapped her to the side. Seria ran to her aid as some of the other girls used the chance to run. Some like Mikoto readied to attack the girl.

"I have found that when I touch someone it makes my connection a lot stronger." Kurosawa placed her hand on Touma head. "Jack pot!" She yelled excited. "Oh, what are you? You are either absolutely crazy or I don't know what! The things you fear! It's enough to power an army."

Mikoto launched another attack only for a blond young man to appear and absorb the attack. More figures started to appear around the girls. A scantily clad young woman with an eye patch and a witch's hat holding a long spear. A large stone golem formed before them. The members of God's Right Seat stood around them looking for alien to them. The glowing form of Innocentius formed before them letting out a terrible bellow. Carrisa in her red dress stood holding a long sword. Accelerator walked forwards a smile on his face as he stared down the railgun. A pregnant woman surrounded by monster watched the girls as if waiting to let her children at them. Rensa with white wings spreading behind her looked at them ready to attack.

"He's afraid for all of you." Kurosawa finally spoke again. "His fear is giving me power." A power suit formed next to her and picked up Touma by his left side. Kurosawa jumped on its back. She looked at Misaki, "The girl I talked to before I came here, scared of reptiles, told me that the Railgun was going to fight a spiky haired boy. She also said that this boy, rumor had it, was someone you loved and that I might find you here." Kurosawa smiled. "Mental Out, I came for you but let's play a game first. If you can get to the front of the Tokiwadai Dorm in one hour I'll trade him for you. That is if you can make it past everything I leave for you." With that the power suit carried them off.

The girls that hadn't run stared down the creatures made from Touma's fears when suddenly a roar bellowed and a large dragon formed above their heads.

* * *

**Authors Notes: Okay, a quick update since I've in the mood to write something with a bit of a horror theme with Halloween only days away. I might be able to finish this arc on Halloween. No promises but we'll see what happens. Thanks again to my beta icefriend. Timeline wise we are about early December and post volume 8 so I'm assuming everyone survives the end of everything there. I'm sure a lot of people are going to enjoy the end of this arc. If this makes it to tv trope someone let me know. Leave a review if you like, I love knowing what you guys like and how I handle the charatcers.**


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